DailyDot sandy hook Feedhttp://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/Recent sandy hook articles from Daily Doten-usMon, 05 Dec 2016 15:09:20 +0000Sandy Hook Promise Release Powerful, Shocking PSA Set in a High Schoolhttp://www.dailydot.com/irl/sandy-hook-promise-gun-violence-psa/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/39/3a/393adafad4e7cb0485c18448da7c244d.jpg'></p>
<p>Sometimes, the details are the most important part of a story. That’s what <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a> Promise hopes you take out of the following PSA, which features the tale of how a boy and girl meet in high school and potentially begin a relationship.&nbsp;</p><p>On the outskirts of the couple’s anonymous courtship, there's another story you're likely missing. &nbsp;</p><p>Before you press play, you should know you’re watching what will be a shocking turn of events. &nbsp;Even though you know you should be looking for clues during Evan's courtship—and you’ll probably find a few them before they’re explicitly pointed out—it’s difficult to spot them all.</p><p>Take a look.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PUE4c3lRZUZ0QktjIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>The sweetness of the awkwardly blooming love story mixed with the shock value of the student cocking his gun in a crowded gymnasium is exactly the point for Sandy Hook Promise—which is led by family members of the children killed in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. The organization aims to provide “programs and practices<a href="http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/about#mission"> that protect children from gun violence</a>.”<p></p><p>"We wanted to create an impactful visual to show that violence is preventable if you know the signs" Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise, whose first-grade son, Dylan, was killed at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/" target="_self">Sandy Hook</a>, told&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/02/health/sandy-hook-gun-violence-psa-trnd/" target="_blank">CNN</a>. "Many people are unaware of that there are specific signs that people give off that can indicate a violent act is imminent."</p><p>There have been hundreds of mass shootings in the years since 20 elementary school children were killed at Sandy Hook. In that same time period, there has been no new gun-control legislation passed on the federal level.&nbsp;</p><p>“We want this video to inspire hope in those who watch it," Hockley said, "to show them that we are not helpless in the face of gun violence and that there is something all of us can do to prevent it.”</p><p><br></p>
jkatzowitz@thedailydot.com (Josh Katzowitz)Mon, 05 Dec 2016 15:09:20 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/irl/sandy-hook-promise-gun-violence-psa/IRLFBI background checks for gun purchases skyrocket in Junehttp://www.dailydot.com/layer8/gun-sale-orlando-background-check-fbi/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/cd/c6/cdc6e051e9dc0d1ee795606eb34ccd9d.jpg'></p>
<p>Federal background checks for gun purchases <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/05/news/fbi-background-checks/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Most+Recent%29" target="_blank">skyrocketed</a> in June, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/04/june-gun-sales-crush-previous-record.html" target="_blank">marking</a> the fourteenth month in a row to set a new record. </p><p>In June 2015, for instance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted about 1.5 million background checks. This June, however, the FBI carried out more than 2.1 million—a nearly 40 percent increase. </p><p>Though the summer month <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/04/june-gun-sales-crush-previous-record.html" target="_blank">tends</a> to have the lowest background checks, the recent surge may not come as a surprise. Mass shootings often prompt the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/upshot/policy-changes-after-mass-shootings-tend-to-make-guns-easier-to-buy.html" target="_blank">loosening of gun restrictions</a> and a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/10/us/gun-sales-terrorism-obama-restrictions.html?_r=0" target="_blank">spike in gun sales</a>, and the recent increase comes in the wake of the June 12&nbsp;<a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/orlando-shooting/">attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida</a>, one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. A similar spike occurred after <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a> in 2012 and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/san-bernardino/">San Bernardino</a> in December 2015. </p><p>The FBI closed out 2015 conducting more than 23 million background checks, which is the current record. But in the first half of 2016, the FBI conducted nearly 14 million background checks, meaning 2016 is on track to break the existing record.&nbsp;</p>
lwalker@dailydot.com (Lauren Walker)Tue, 05 Jul 2016 16:28:01 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/gun-sale-orlando-background-check-fbi/ComicsLayer 8How to diaper your way through a 15-hour filibusterhttp://www.dailydot.com/irl/filibuster-diaper-survival-tips-/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/9c/19/9c19f52932f78e9c55709f273c4b501d.jpg'></p>
But...how do they <em>pee</em>?<p>That was one question likely asked by millions on Wednesday as U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) forced a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/filibuster-senate-gun-control-orlando/">15-hour Senate debate on gun control laws</a> by refusing to yield the Senate floor.</p><p>In doing so, Murphy ultimately succeeded in getting Republicans to agree to a vote on universal background checks and gun bans for those on the terrorist watchlist. It was a step forward for gun control advocates, pushed by the desperation in the aftermath of the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/orlando-shooting/">Orlando mass shooting</a> and death of 49 people in a gay bar on Saturday night.</p><p>For the filibuster, Murphy literally didn't move from his desk for over half a day, starting at 11am Wednesday and going into the early morning on Thursday—which raised the question: How does one survive a filibuster? More to the point: How does one go to the bathroom?</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0NocmlzTXVycGh5Q1Qvc3RhdHVzLzc0MzQwMDkzMTIzNzE5OTg3MiIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div>Murphy's marathon debate on gun laws was the most high-profile filibuster since Texas senator <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/wendy-davis/">Wendy Davis</a> stood in that state's legislature for 11 hours in order to block the restrictive anti-abortion bill S.B. 5. Davis later revealed to the media that she'd had a <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/28/texas-sen-wendy-davis-dons-urinary-catheter-11-hou/">catheter</a> fitted by a doctor who visited the statehouse for a last-minute procedure. She also wore running shoes and a back brace.<p>Murphy hasn't yet admitted to using a catheter, which typically consists of a tube inserted into the urethra that carries urine to a bag, but it's highly likely that he did just that—or donned an adult diaper. In order to continue holding the floor, a senator must not leave their desk or sit down. That means bathroom breaks are out of the question, back and foot pain are a given, and eating and drinking breaks are...well, complicated.</p><p>According to the <em><a href="http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Murphy-refuses-to-leave-Senate-floor-until-gun-8201610.php">Connecticut Post</a></em>, Murphy's marathon debate was fueled by Mountain Dew and Doritos. DC insider newspaper&nbsp;<em><a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/hoh/fellow-huskies-rally-around-chris-murphy">Roll Call</a></em>&nbsp;reported what could have been a slight departure from Senate rules: Though&nbsp;tradition prohibits senators from eating or drinking anything other than "milk or water" on the floor, Murphy's support contingent of Democrats were spotted carrying trays loaded with sustenance for the filibustering senator.</p><blockquote class="">[Newtown, Connecticut Rep. Elizabeth] Esty's tray was complete with a can of the Red Bull energy drink, which she said Murphy "lives on," an apple, hot dogs, Doritos, Powerade and Mountain Dew. She also had deodorant&nbsp;"in case it goes really long." &nbsp;&nbsp;</blockquote><p>In addition to the beverage allowance (which clearly has expanded from "milk or water" to include Red Bull and Mountain Dew), the Senate has a long-standing tradition called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Desk">Candy Desk</a>. The Candy Desk, currently occupied by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), dates back to 1965, when a California senator made the most of his desk's location near the entrance and began handing out candy to fellow senators. Between the Candy Desk and smuggled trays of junk food, Murphy was probably pretty cracked-out by the time his filibuster ended at around 2am.</p><p>On <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter</a>, as Americans devoured the filibuster late into the night, many expressed concern over Murphy's ability to retain human functionality given the Senate floor rules.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL1RoZVhjbGFzcy9zdGF0dXMvNzQzMjk5MTQwOTMxNTkyMTkyIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2VsaXpfcm9ja3Mvc3RhdHVzLzc0MzI3MDk1MTM5MTg3OTE2OCIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JJdWVzVHJhdmVJZXIvc3RhdHVzLzc0MzMyNTUwNDY5NDk0Mzc0NCIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0plbm5pZmVyRmljYXJyYS9zdGF0dXMvNzQzMzEwMzkyNDEyMTE5MDQwIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL3JvaGFsbG1hL3N0YXR1cy83NDMyNzk1ODQyMzAwMjcyNjYiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>By the end of Murphy's filibuster, over 40&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/senate/">Senate</a> Democrats and two Republicans had joined in to shame congressional inaction after hundreds of horrifying mass shootings have rocked the nation. Some of the most rousing speeches of the night were given by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and even Candy Desk-occupying Republican Pat Toomey.<p></p><p>Many social media users noted, and bemoaned, the <a href="https://twitter.com/wunderkind87/status/743210799313752064">absence of Sen. Bernie Sanders</a> (D-VT)—who had strangely departed from the Capitol just hours before the filibuster was set to begin.</p><p>But it was the end of Murphy's filibuster—not concerns over his bladder bursting, or skyrocketing blood sugar levels from all those soft drinks—that had the most impact.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0NocmlzTXVycGh5Q1Qvc3RhdHVzLzc0MzQ3MjYyMjA5MzA4NjcyMSIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div>Just before finally yielding the floor and ending the 15-hour debate, Murphy propped up a large photo of 6-year-old Dylan Hockey—one of the 20 young children murdered in the 2012 <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a> school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.&nbsp;<p></p><p>Murphy described how schoolteacher Anne Marie Murphy tried to save Hockey by wrapping her arms around him in order to shield him from the rain of bullets from killer Adam Lanza's Bushmaster XM15-E2S carbine military assault rifle. Both Anne Marie Murphy and Hockey died in the shooting, but were later discovered in an embrace.</p><p>This morning, Murphy returned to the Senate floor. According to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-shooting-guns-idUSKCN0Z21HX">Reuters</a>, he said, "We'll try again today to move forward with amendments from both sides, and once there is an agreement to do so we'll update everyone."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p>
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mohara@dailydot.com (Mary Emily O'Hara)Thu, 16 Jun 2016 17:31:11 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/irl/filibuster-diaper-survival-tips-/Layer 8IRLMother of Sandy Hook victim writes letter to mourning Orlando familieshttp://www.dailydot.com/irl/sandy-hook-mother-shares-letter/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/62/4a/624a193594b9fda38d771665c91a5bdf.jpg'></p>
<p>Nelba Márquez-Greene, the mother of a 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim, posted an open letter to the victims of the Orlando shooting on <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/facebook">Facebook</a> Sunday afternoon. The letter outlined the mother’s heartbreak and empathized with the victims’ families.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mYWNlYm9vay5jb20vUmVtZW1iZXJpbmdBbmEvcG9zdHMvNTgzNzM3MzY4NDUzNjg2OjAiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>The letter was published the afternoon after the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/orlando-mass-shooting-june-daily/">mass shooting at a gay club</a>, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, which took the lives of 49 and has been labeled as the worst mass shooting in U.S. in history.<p></p><p>The post appeared on the victim Ana's memorial Facebook page, and was also signed by father Jimmy Greene and brother Isaiah Márquez-Greene. Ana was<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/sandy-hook-shooting-victims-names_n_2307354.html" target="_blank"> one of 20 children and six staff members</a> who were killed by Adam Lanza, armed with an assault rifle, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.&nbsp;</p><p>“My first reaction was visceral. I know the horror of waiting to hear,” Márquez-Greene wrote. “A helicopter flew overhead. It made everything too real. Too familiar. I panicked. I called my friend. I cried. Fifty people.”</p><p>Márquez-Greene wrote about her frustration that the Sandy Hook shooting did not spark policy change related to gun violence. She also said she is “waiting for the church to be as outraged about gun violence as much as we seem to be about who pees where in a Target bathroom.” </p><p>She continued: “I am sorry that our tragedy here in Sandy hook wasn't enough to save your loved ones. ... I tried and I won't stop trying. Don't you dare even listen to even ONE person who may insinuate that somehow this is your loved ones fault because they were gay or any other reason.” </p><p>She added at the end of her letter that those planning to donate to the victims should hold off until they find a charity they are certain will send the funds to families.&nbsp;</p><p>“America's mass shootings should not be the United Way's pay day or a specific town's funding source to build a senior center,” she said. “Millions were poured into Sandy Hook. Very little actually reached us. And victims of gun violence will have a lifetime of need.”</p><p>Márquez-Greene is not the only person who connected the Sandy Hook shooting with the shooting in Orlando. Many have expressed their frustration on Twitter: </p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/harto/status/742030085100703745" target="_blank"></a></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0pvaG5GdWdlbHNhbmcvc3RhdHVzLzc0MjQ3MDIwNjUwNTY4MDg5NiIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><a href="https://twitter.com/tracyromulus/status/742026631519178752" target="_blank"></a><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2hhcnRvL3N0YXR1cy83NDIwMzAwODUxMDA3MDM3NDUiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><a href="https://twitter.com/csydelko/status/742018591525068800" target="_blank"></a><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL3RyYWN5cm9tdWx1cy9zdGF0dXMvNzQyMDI2NjMxNTE5MTc4NzUyIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><a href="https://twitter.com/DrRichReddick/status/742016443743494145" target="_blank"></a><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2NzeWRlbGtvL3N0YXR1cy83NDIwMTg1OTE1MjUwNjg4MDAiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><br class="dd-embed-br"><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0RyUmljaFJlZGRpY2svc3RhdHVzLzc0MjAxNjQ0Mzc0MzQ5NDE0NSIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><p>Márquez-Greene stressed in her letter the need for community at this time.&nbsp;</p><p>"Friends- you are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution," she said. "Victims cannot bear the burden of this alone. Please help."&nbsp;</p>The Márquez-Greene family did not respond to a request for comment at press time.&nbsp;<p></p>
tesscagle4@gmail.com (Tess Cagle)Tue, 14 Jun 2016 21:50:06 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/irl/sandy-hook-mother-shares-letter/Layer 8IRLThis browser extension removes names, photos of mass shooters from news articleshttp://www.dailydot.com/layer8/zero-minutes-of-fame-mass-shooting-browser-extension/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/3d/56/3d56045901d6729a60fb60bfe2638b4b.jpg'></p>
<p>After every high-profile mass shooting, there is an inevitable debate: Is the media to wrong to focus on the killer?</p><p>Reporters have a natural inclination to dig into the history of a mass shooter, both to tell the story of the tragedy and also to determine the perpetrator's motivation—to answer the question, what kind of person does such a horrible thing?&nbsp;</p><p>Giving the public a full understanding of what happened is impossible without painting a vivid picture of the most important actor in the story: the person who pulled the trigger. </p><p>However, in recent years, there's been a visceral reaction against indulging this instinct. Last year, the parents of Jessica Teves—who was killed when a shooter opened fire during a showing of <em>The Dark Knight Rises </em>in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012—started the&nbsp;<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/02/media/media-decisions-naming-showing-killers/">No Notoriety</a> campaign, which pushes for a focus on the victims of mass shootings rather than the shooters. </p><p>Taking that line of thinking one step further, gun-control group The Brady Campaign has released a browser extension called <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zero-minutes-of-fame/nnagcddidgaecaalfhpcnkofldafahce">Zero Minutes of Fame</a>, available for Google Chrome,&nbsp;that automatically removes the name of mass shooters from news coverage and replaces photos of them with photos of the victims.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PVNDWkFoelZqMnNjIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>Citing a 2015 study published in the journal PloS ONE that found up to 30 percent of mass shootings are&nbsp;<a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0117259">directly inspired</a> by prior attacks, the group argues that giving extensive coverage to shooters not only provides the killers with widespread attention—which may be exactly what they want—but it also has the effect of triggering future mass shootings.<p></p><p>“We’ve had #ENOUGH of seeing killers’ names and images plastered all over the media,” Brady Campaign President Dan Gross said in a statement. “Instead of rewarding killers and inspiring copycats, we should be lifting up the stories and the lives of victims, heroes, and survivors. The fact is, notoriety serves as a reward for these killers and as a call-to-action for others who would seek to do similar harm in the name of infamy.”</p><p>When installed on a browser, the Zero Minutes of Fame extension turns the first paragraph of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>&nbsp;page for the 2102 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut from:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-image" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vY2RuMC5kYWlseWRvdC5jb20vdXBsb2FkZWQvaW1hZ2VzL29yaWdpbmFsLzIwMTYvNC8yNi9hZGFtX2xhbnphX3dpa2lfLV9uYW1lX25vcm1hbC5QTkciLCJjcmVkaXQiOiJXaWtpcGVkaWEiLCJjcmVkaXRMaW5rIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvU2FuZHlfSG9va19FbGVtZW50YXJ5X1NjaG9vbF9zaG9vdGluZyIsImNhcHRpb24iOiIiLCJ3aWR0aCI6IiIsInRleHR3cmFwIjoiIiwidHlwZSI6ImltYWdlIn0."></div><p>Into:</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-image" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vY2RuMC5kYWlseWRvdC5jb20vdXBsb2FkZWQvaW1hZ2VzL29yaWdpbmFsLzIwMTYvNC8yNy9BZGFtX0xhbnphX1dpa2lfLV9OYW1lX1JlbW92ZWQuUE5HIiwiY3JlZGl0IjoiV2lraXBlZGlhIiwiY3JlZGl0TGluayI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZW4ud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpL1NhbmR5X0hvb2tfRWxlbWVudGFyeV9TY2hvb2xfc2hvb3RpbmciLCJjYXB0aW9uIjoiIiwid2lkdGgiOiIiLCJ0ZXh0d3JhcCI6IiIsInR5cGUiOiJpbWFnZSJ9"></div>The extension only works on full combinations of a shooter's first and last name. References to a shooter by his or her last name only, as is the common style for making references to someone in a news story after the initial mention, are left unchanged:<p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-image" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vY2RuMC5kYWlseWRvdC5jb20vdXBsb2FkZWQvaW1hZ2VzL29yaWdpbmFsLzIwMTYvNC8yNi9sYW56YV9zZWNvbmRfcmVmZXJlbmNlLlBORyIsImNyZWRpdCI6Ildpa2lwZWRpYSIsImNyZWRpdExpbmsiOiJodHRwczovL2VuLndpa2lwZWRpYS5vcmcvd2lraS9TYW5keV9Ib29rX0VsZW1lbnRhcnlfU2Nob29sX3Nob290aW5nIiwiY2FwdGlvbiI6IiIsIndpZHRoIjoiIiwidGV4dHdyYXAiOiIiLCJ0eXBlIjoiaW1hZ2UifQ.."></div>A 2013 Daily Dot report&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/crime/sandy-hook-adam-lanza-kaynbred/">about the Sandy Hook shooter's online footprint</a> shows the extension's image replacement feature:<p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-image" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vY2RuMC5kYWlseWRvdC5jb20vdXBsb2FkZWQvaW1hZ2VzL29yaWdpbmFsLzIwMTYvNC8yNi9sYW56YV9kYWlseV9kb3QuUE5HIiwiY3JlZGl0IjoiVGhlIERhaWx5IERvdCIsImNyZWRpdExpbmsiOiJodHRwOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5ZG90LmNvbS9jcmltZS9zYW5keS1ob29rLWFkYW0tbGFuemEta2F5bmJyZWQvIiwiY2FwdGlvbiI6IiIsIndpZHRoIjoiIiwidGV4dHdyYXAiOiIiLCJ0eXBlIjoiaW1hZ2UifQ.."></div>Since Zero Minutes of Fame only alters the online experience of people who voluntarily choose to download it, the extension's effects are largely symbolic, a protest against the way mass shootings have largely been covered.<p></p><p>In addition to the browser extension, the Brady Campaign has an <a href="http://actions.bradycampaign.org/page/s/zero-minutes-of-fame">online petition</a> urging the media to reconsider the way it covers mass shootings.</p><p>&nbsp;“These events are always covered by the media, who plaster the killer’s name, image and motive all over their channels—ensuring that the cycle of mass-violence continues,” the petition reads. “So, if the media continues to give these killers their 15 minutes of fame, then it’s time to take matters into our own hands.” </p><p>Even so, not everyone thinks deliberately ignoring the people who commit mass shootings is a good idea. In a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.poynter.org/2015/why-its-important-to-name-the-shooter/376494/">blog post</a>&nbsp;published last year, media ethicist Kelly McBride argued that naming the shooter is an important public service.&nbsp;</p><p>“When you name an individual and tell his story, you give people important context for the backstory,” she wrote, arguing that understanding the individual who pulled the trigger is a crucial element in identifying trends—such as how the majority of mass shooters in the U.S. are young, white men.</p><p> “If we had not named Seung-Hui Cho as the Virginia Tech assailant, his teachers might not have come forward to report they had voiced concerns about his mental health in the past,” McBride continued, noting that naming the shooter also helps to correct misinformation—such as how Lanza's brother, Ryan, was originally identified as the Sandy Hook shooter. “Instead of vowing to avoid the name of the shooter, journalists would be better off promising to use the name responsibly, to tell the stories of the victims completely, and to refrain from publishing poorly-sourced information that has a higher likelihood of being wrong.”</p>
asankin@dailydot.com (Aaron Sankin)Wed, 27 Apr 2016 17:49:36 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/zero-minutes-of-fame-mass-shooting-browser-extension/IRLLayer 8Obama planning to try again on gun-control executive orderhttp://www.dailydot.com/layer8/obama-gun-control-executive-order-background-checks-high-volume-sellers/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/92/39/923998a71a87cf1e5aefddc4ce3aef5b.jpg'></p>
<p><a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/obama">President Obama</a> is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-weighs-expanding-background-checks-through-executive-authority/2015/10/08/6bd45e56-6b63-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html">weighing an executive order</a> that would impose new background-check requirements on Americans who buy guns, in his administration's first significant response to the several dozen school shootings that have taken place this year.</p><p>An executive order would allow the president to circumvent the Republican-controlled Congress, which has rebuffed all recent proposals to tighten gun-control laws. Although the Senate passed a bill to reform the federal background-check system—which has remained virtually unmodified for 17 years—the bill languished in the House.</p><p>The White House announcement follows closely after the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/umpqua-community-college-shooting/">Umpqua Community College killings</a> last week in Oregon, in which nine people were killed and nine others were injured. Early Friday morning, Northern Arizona University became the site of <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/northern-arizona-university-shooting-becomes-46th-school-year-381378" target="_blank">the 46th school shooting</a> this year—<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/list-school-shootings-america-2013-380535" target="_blank">the 143rd since 2013</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>The president’s plan would increase the number of background checks that sellers must perform by establishing new guidelines for individuals who profit from high-volume gun sales.</p><p>Current law requires anyone “engaged in the business” of selling firearms to obtain a license and perform background checks, but the requirement exempts those who make “occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”</p><p>The White House considered a proposal in 2013 to expand the licensing and background-check requirements to anyone who sells at least 50 guns per year, but officials ultimately set aside the idea due to the complexities of redefining who counts as a “gun dealer.”</p><p>The White House has <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-weighs-white-house-moves-gun-control-n441186">considered increasing the threshold</a>&nbsp;to at&nbsp;least 100 guns per year&nbsp;instead of 50.</p><p>The National Rifle Association sharply criticized the executive order. NSA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-weighs-expanding-background-checks-through-executive-authority/2015/10/08/6bd45e56-6b63-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html">slammed</a> the administration’s plan, saying that any change to the current laws was unnecessary. “People who repeatedly sell large volumes of firearms are already covered in the current statute because they are already defined as ‘engaged in the business,’” she told the <em>Washington Post</em>.</p><p>Two out of every five guns sold in the United States change hands without a background check, according to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.</p><p>In June, after shooter Dylann Roof entered a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and murdered nine people with a .45-caliber weapon, the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted that there had been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-accused-charleston-shooter-should-not-have-been-able-to-buy-gun/2015/07/10/0d09fda0-271f-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html" target="_blank">a breakdown</a> in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which was established in 1994 by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.</p><p>Roof should have been flagged in the system when he tried to buy a gun two months before the shooting, because he had a prior drug conviction. The FBI has three business days to process a background check and approve or deny a gun purchase; after that time, a gun dealer is allowed to complete the sale.&nbsp;</p><p>“Like the Virginia Tech massacre, the Columbine massacre, and countless everyday shootings, gaps in our gun background check system contributed to the Charleston attack,” <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/FBI-says-accused-church-gunman-should-have-been-6378620.php">noted</a> Arkadi Gerney, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress.&nbsp;</p><p>In July, John Russell Houser, a man with a record of mental illness, killed two people and wounded nine others at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, using a .40-caliber handgun that he purchased at an Alabama pawn shop.&nbsp;</p><p>Following the shooting, Gov. <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/bobby-jindal/">Bobby Jindal</a> (R), who is now running for president, blasted politicians calling for a national debate about gun violence, accusing them of trying to score political points.</p><p>“Let’s focus on these families,” said Jindal, who has an A+ rating from the NRA.</p><p>President Obama last introduced proposals to tighten gun-control laws after the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a lone gunman carrying three semi-automatic firearms murdered 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter fired 156 bullets in less than five minutes, according to police.&nbsp;</p><p>Democrats in Congress introduced a bill the following year that would have banned more than 150 types of firearms, including military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. Republicans&nbsp;<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/17/news/la-pn-dianne-feinstein-assault-weapons-vote-20130417" target="_blank">defeated</a> that bill in the Senate; all but one of them, in addition to 15 Democrats, voted against it.</p><p>Had the bill passed, it still would have exempted more than 2,250 specific firearms used for hunting and sport. It also would have grandfathered in all weapons owned prior to the day the law was enacted.&nbsp;</p><p>“This proposal would have done nothing to prevent the terrible murders in Newtown, but it would limit the constitutional liberties of law-abiding citizens,” Sen. <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/ted-cruz/">Ted Cruz</a> (R-Texas), now a presidential candidate, told reporters at the time.</p><p>That same day, 41 Republicans and five Democrats helped <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/us/politics/senate-obama-gun-control.html">defeat a bipartisan bill</a> known as the Manchin-Toomey Amendment, which would have expanded background checks to cover firearm purchases at gun shows and online.</p><p>Flanked by the parents of children murdered in Newtown, President Obama <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/04/17/guns-background-checks-manchin-senate/2090105/" target="_blank">lashed out</a> at the lawmakers who killed the bill, as well as the NRA, which had circulated false information about a “Big Brother” gun-owner list just prior to the vote.</p><p>"All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Obama said.&nbsp;</p><p>According to ShootingTrack.com, a website that monitors shootings that kill at least four people, there have been <a href="http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015">298 mass shootings</a> in the United States this year.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rs12240/15624225201/">..Russ..</a>/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)</em></p>
dell@dailydot.com (Dell Cameron)Fri, 09 Oct 2015 19:38:08 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/obama-gun-control-executive-order-background-checks-high-volume-sellers/Layer 8Growing up in the shadow of America's mass shooting epidemichttp://www.dailydot.com/via/growing-up-columbine-millennials-gun-violence/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/44/14/44141d833c250d153e25f8cbb5673b93.jpg'></p><p>Gun violence has gone viral. Last Thursday evening, Christopher Starks was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/28/us/georgia-savannah-state-university-shooting/index.html" target="_blank">shot and killed</a> in the student union at Savannah State University in Georgia. Earlier that day, Mississippi State University had what it initially described as an “active shooter” situation in a text message to students. After giving the “all clear” on <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/twitter">Twitter</a>, though, <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/08/mississippi_state_university_s.html" target="_blank">it emerged</a> that no shots had been fired. The university had issued the warning after receiving a threat.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL21hcm9vbmFsZXJ0L3N0YXR1cy82MzY5Mjk3NjU3NTMxMTQ2MjQiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>But the crime that galvanized the world was the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/crime/virginia-news-shooting-wdbj-social-media/" target="_self">murder of two journalists</a>, Allison Parker and Adam Ward, who <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/">were killed</a> during a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/journalists-stand-with-virginia-station-wdbj/">live morning broadcast</a> by a former colleague as he live-tweeted the shooting. His own footage, which he uploaded to <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/social-media">social media</a>, quickly began circulating. For once, the world could see what American mass murder looks like in real-time. &nbsp;<p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL1dEQko3L3N0YXR1cy82MzY1MjYxODI5NzI5NjQ4NjQiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL1dEQko3L3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NzYzMTM5MTkzMjQxNjAiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>Millennials didn’t need to witness the carnage to understand its effects, though. We grew up watching our friends gunned down. The difference is that with Parker and Ward (both in their 20s), the rest of the world got to witness it, too.<p></p><p>For an entire generation, Columbine ranks alongside <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/september-11">September 11</a> as a seminal moment in our collective development. Few of us under 35 can’t tell you where we were when we first heard that 12 students and one teacher had been killed in Colorado. Since then, we’ve seen our classmates again massacred at <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/virginia-tech">Virginia Tech</a>, our fellow soldiers executed in Chattanooga, and our children slaughtered at <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook</a>. </p><p>Since Columbine, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9414540/A-history-of-mass-shootings-in-the-US-since-Columbine.html" target="_blank">more than 30 mass shootings</a> have taken place in the United States. Each time, as the satirical newspaper the<em> Onion</em> <a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-36131" target="_blank">points out</a>, we say there is “no way to prevent this,” despite the fact that this routine mass murder doesn’t happen in any other Western country. After each tragedy, politicians trot out the same platitudes for the victims and their families, cautioning us that “now is not the time” to talk about gun violence. These <a href="http://www.theonion.com/article/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-36131" target="_blank">empty overtures</a> prompted author Maureen Johnson to create the hashtag #WhenCanWeTalkAboutTheGuns.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL21hdXJlZW5qb2huc29uL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1MzMzNTgzMjgyMTM1MDQiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL21zamVzc2ljYXJhaW5lcy9zdGF0dXMvNjM2NjU3OTU2NTc1MDM1MzkyIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL01pY2hlbGxlXzUyMy9zdGF0dXMvNjM2NTU5OTM4NDcxMzU4NDY0IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>For my generation, this isn’t a question: We’ve been dealing with gun violence since we were in middle school. From the emergence of “active shooter drills” in schools to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO04cQBdcHM" target="_blank">videos detailing how to survive a mass shooting</a>, we’ve grown up with the reminder that we could be next. A couple years ago, I blogged about <a href="https://millennialtruths.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/millennial-truth-6-we-grew-up-as-our-friends-were-gunned-down/" target="_blank">my own experiences</a> coming of age in a hail of bullets, including a terrifying lockdown I experienced in college:<p></p><blockquote>In 2008, when I was in my “super senior” year at Western Kentucky University, the entire campus was shut down when shots were allegedly fired on two different parts of campus. I was at my apartment, running late for class, when the first shots were reported on the local news station. That part, South Campus as it is known, was on my way to classes on the main campus, known affectionately as the Hill. My commute would have taken me right past the action. I called my grandmother (from here on out known as Mamaw—it’s a southern thing), and we decided I should stay put.<br><br>It wasn’t long before WBKO broke in again, saying more shots were fired, this time on the Hill. I called my grandmother back, told her I was safe, and locked the doors. I immediately began calling my friends on campus, who weren’t answering. I couldn’t get a hold of anybody. Family began calling as CNN broke the story, as did friends from high school and those whom had graduated, checking in on my safety and for updates. It was only a year and a half after the Virginia Tech massacre, and we all knew the stakes. This was real. It was violent. My friends would be shot. People would die.</blockquote><p>Gratefully, as was the case at Mississippi State, it was a false alarm. The fear I felt, though, was real. For millennials, this is not just a political issue—it’s a looming menace in our daily lives. We are the most frequent sacrificial lambs on the altar of the Second Amendment. &nbsp;</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/208215761/Young-Guns-How-Gun-Violence-is-Devastating-the-Millennial-Generation" target="_blank">a 2014 study</a> by the Center for American Progress, people under 30 account for 54 percent of all gun-related murders, making it the second leading cause of death for our generation, behind automobile accidents; current trends suggest it will be the leading cause of death very soon. To put this in the startling context, “more than one million years of potential life are lost due to gun deaths each year,” the study found. Thirty percent of us have been or know someone who has been affected by gun violence, and 60 percent of us fear we will.</p><blockquote class="pullquote">For my generation, this isn’t even a question: We’ve been dealing with gun violence since we were in middle school.</blockquote><p>Given that we’re more likely to be killed by guns, it’s not surprising that <a href="http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2015/03/10/millennials-still-eschew-guns/" target="_blank">millennials show lower rates of gun ownership</a> than previous generations. But according to <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/chapter-2-generations-and-issues/" target="_blank">a poll conducted last year</a> by the Pew Research Center, only 49 percent of millennials would say that controlling guns is more important than protecting gun rights. This figure has been seized on <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/03/10/pew-study-majority-of-millennials-oppose-gun-control/" target="_blank">by conservative websites</a> and gun rights activists as evidence that millennials are, in fact, pro-gun.</p><p>This is roughly on par with previous generations, though, and is a vague question. It also contradicts another poll, conducted in 2013 by United Technologies/National Journal, which found that <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressional-connection/coverage/poll-finds-that-obama-s-base-overlaps-with-gun-control-coalition-20130114" target="_blank">56 percent of millennials support stricter gun control</a> regulation, while another poll by Pew shows millennials <a href="http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/01-14-13%20Gun%20Policy%20Release.pdf" target="_blank">consistently embracing gun control</a>. When asked more specific questions, like <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/01/14/National-Politics/Polling/question_9678.xml?uuid=1uL-xF6VEeKKy6tct36VyA" target="_blank">whether they support a ban on assault weapons</a>, a majority of millennials answer “yes.” That is hardly surprising, since <a href="http://www.kjrh.com/news/semiautomatic-weapons-used-in-aurora-tucson-virginia-tech-newtown-connecticut-shootings" target="_blank">semiautomatic weapons have featured</a> in many of the mass shootings that have horrified, but not galvanized, the nation since Columbine. </p><p>This isn’t just about mass shootings, though. Though we frequently define the gun control debate in terms of mass violence, most millennials who die from firearms will lose their lives in isolated incidents. The scourge of gun violence and the lack of gun control in this country is killing young people at an alarming rate, with people of color especially vulnerable. In their study, the Center for American Progress found that 64 percent of victims murdered with a gun were black—with young black men particularly at risk.</p><p>These victims rarely get the memorialization victims of mass shooting receive. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wearing-orange-hadiya-pendleton-met-20150602-story.html" target="_blank">Hadiya Pendleton</a>, a 15-year-old girl gunned down in a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/chicago">Chicago</a> park, would’ve been 18 this year. And for those of us who have survived, the effects of growing up in gun culture are jarring. As Wellesley student Sam Lanevi <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-lanevi/growing-up-in-the-age-of-_b_7620794.html" target="_blank">blogged at the Huffington Post</a>, “mass shootings are now a part of the school experience.” As a child, she had conversations with her mother about what to do in the event of an active shooter. “Parents should not need to educate their about shooter protocol in an ‘advanced country,’” she wrote.</p><p>That is exactly the country we live in, and last week, we saw it play out live on our televisions and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/twitter">Twitter</a> feeds. America can no longer afford to ignore the urgent danger of our lax culture of gun violence. It’s not just time to talk about the guns. It’s time to do something about them.</p><p><em>Skylar Baker-Jordan is a&nbsp;Chicago-based essayist, commentator, and journalist writing about masculinity, the LGBT community, and U.K. politics.&nbsp;Follow Skylar on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SkylarJordan" target="_blank">@SkylarJordan</a>.</em></p><p><em>Illustration by Max Fleishman</em></p>Skylar Baker-JordanMon, 31 Aug 2015 15:41:19 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/growing-up-columbine-millennials-gun-violence/Layer 8ViaDon't watch the video of two journalists being gunned down in Virginiahttp://www.dailydot.com/via/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/95/1f/951f28eb7913b8fb5917e97853277b68.jpg'></p>
<p>They were just doing their jobs.</p><p>While live on TV for a morning segment, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a broadcast reporter and a videographer at a Virginia news station, were both allegedly shot by a former employee of the station, Vester Lee Flanagan II. During their final moments, thousands of viewers and the station’s staff—including Ward’s fiance in the control room—watched in horror as screams and gunshots rang out, with the camera dropping to the ground. The two young <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/journalists/" target="_self">journalists</a>, both regarded as hard workers with bright futures, were killed in cold blood.</p><p>Yet early reports of the shooting from most networks followed a familiar pattern, one on display when deadly gun and police violence claimed lives on videotape. They played the disturbing footage for viewers across the United States and around the world, likely predicated on the notion that audiences have the right to see what happened firsthand. One major broadcaster in particular, namely <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/cnn" target="_self">CNN</a>, even noted during breaking news reports that they would only play the video once per hour. </p><p>If we need to see other people get gunned down on TV or on the Internet to be moved toward empathy, there’s something terribly wrong with our current state of affairs. One need not watch a videotaped execution to know that gun violence is an extreme problem in America. And the deaths of journalists, unarmed black people, and others cannot and should not be fodder for our infotainment. </p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL21hcmtmb2xsbWFuL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NjAwMzAxOTIzNzM3NjAiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL1RheWxvcmFuZEJlc3R5L3N0YXR1cy82MzY2NTA5ODcxNTYwNzQ0OTYiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2NiY3RvbS9zdGF0dXMvNjM2NTc0MTM0Nzg5NjA3NDI1IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JsYWNrUm9ja1hML3N0YXR1cy82MzY2MTcyMzg0MjcxMzYwMDEiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>Although networks like CNN eventually backpedaled and opted against playing the video of the Virginia shooting, the damage had already been done. Even worse, the reported shooter—who was a TV journalist—livetweeted his murderous act, releasing video from his <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/facebook" target="_self">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/twitter" target="_self">Twitter</a> and other <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/social-media" target="_self">social media</a> accounts. Within the first hour of the shooter’s videos appearing online, both companies suspended his accounts, ensuring their online communities wouldn’t be traumatized by witnessing graphic images of death. <p></p><blockquote class="pullquote">We should be concerned that there's still enough widespread, perverse interest in reproducing images of gun deaths, but not enough attention on preempting those deaths in the first place.</blockquote><p>However, the same cannot be said for when the deaths of <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/eric-garner" target="_self">Eric Garner</a>, <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/walter-scott" target="_self">Walter Scott</a>, and a number of other unarmed black people were caught on videotape and released online. Instead, news outlets ran with it for the days, weeks, and months that followed—both on TV and on the Internet. Each of those black victims had their own lives ahead of them, families and friends who cared, and a community of people already burdened with a steady stream of news about racialized police brutality and killings.&nbsp;</p><p>But those videos played on for the ostensible purpose of shocking some apathetic audiences into empathizing with black people and paying attention to the important messages from <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/black-lives-matter" target="_self">Black Lives Matter</a> activists. However, in the wake of the Virginia shooting, the feelings of journalists and their families outweighed the go-to argument about the “public’s right” to see what happened—and the video was pulled.</p><p>Although some would say the decisions—as they pertained to unarmed black people—were influential in gaining traction on the issue, it wasn’t enough to stop the deadly trend from persisting. For example, at least six black women were found dead in police custody in July alone, including <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/sandra-bland" target="_self">Sandra Bland</a>, whose fateful arrest was caught on both a police <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/dashcam">dashcam</a> and bystander videotape. There were many other unarmed black people who preceded her in death, at the hands of police officers and vigilantes, a news story that steadily gained traction following the murder of <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/trayvon-martin" target="_self">Trayvon Martin</a> in 2012.&nbsp;</p><p>However, here we are, three years later, and there’s been precious little done to fix issues of systemic <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/racism">racism</a> and state-sanctioned violence that targets black people.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JsYWNrUm9ja1hML3N0YXR1cy82MzY2MTcyMzg0MjcxMzYwMDEiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JyeWFuVE5SL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NzM2MDk2NjY5NDUwMjQiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><p></p><p>Indeed, the deaths from the Virginia shooting and the images of black death we’ve become accustomed to seeing stem from distinct circumstances—but they also share a common denominator of unchecked gun violence in America. Even before this shooting, many others preceded it—such as the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/charleston">Charleston</a> attack by a white supremacist, the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook</a> Elementary School shootings, and even as far back as the shooting deaths at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, and Columbine High School. Even as victims families grieved publicly, and as images of people running for their lives circulated all over the news, nothing substantial was done to help prevent these tragedies from happening again.</p><blockquote class="pullquote">The fact that gun violence claimed yet two more lives (that we know of) should be enough to move us to action.&nbsp;</blockquote><p>So it can’t necessarily be said that seeing the video of the Virginia shooting will be the <em>one</em>&nbsp;tragedy that prompts American politicians to seriously clamp down on gun regulation to get things done. We don’t need to see the shootings to know they happened; the fact that gun violence claimed yet two more lives (that we know of) should be enough to move us to action.&nbsp;</p><p>Rather, we should be concerned that there's still enough widespread, perverse interest in reproducing images of violent deaths, but not enough attention on preempting those deaths in the first place.</p><p><em>Derrick&nbsp;Clifton is the deputy opinion editor for the Daily Dot and a New York-based journalist and speaker, primarily covering issues of identity, culture, and social justice.</em></p><p><em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/darronb/8147134510/sizes/l">Darren Birgenheier</a>/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</em></p>
Derrick CliftonWed, 26 Aug 2015 22:44:39 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/Layer 8ViaDon't watch the video of two journalists being gunned down in Virginiahttp://www.dailydot.com/via/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/95/1f/951f28eb7913b8fb5917e97853277b68.jpg'></p>
<p>They were just doing their jobs.</p><p>While live on TV for a morning segment, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a broadcast reporter and a videographer at a Virginia news station, were both allegedly shot by a former employee of the station, Vester Lee Flanagan II. During their final moments, thousands of viewers and the station’s staff—including Ward’s fiance in the control room—watched in horror as screams and gunshots rang out, with the camera dropping to the ground. The two young <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/journalists/" target="_self">journalists</a>, both regarded as hard workers with bright futures, were killed in cold blood.</p><p>Yet early reports of the shooting from most networks followed a familiar pattern, one on display when deadly gun and police violence claimed lives on videotape. They played the disturbing footage for viewers across the United States and around the world, likely predicated on the notion that audiences have the right to see what happened firsthand. One major broadcaster in particular, namely <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/cnn" target="_self">CNN</a>, even noted during breaking news reports that they would only play the video once per hour. </p><p>If we need to see other people get gunned down on TV or on the Internet to be moved toward empathy, there’s something terribly wrong with our current state of affairs. One need not watch a videotaped execution to know that gun violence is an extreme problem in America. And the deaths of journalists, unarmed black people, and others cannot and should not be fodder for our infotainment. </p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL21hcmtmb2xsbWFuL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NjAwMzAxOTIzNzM3NjAiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL1RheWxvcmFuZEJlc3R5L3N0YXR1cy82MzY2NTA5ODcxNTYwNzQ0OTYiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2NiY3RvbS9zdGF0dXMvNjM2NTc0MTM0Nzg5NjA3NDI1IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JsYWNrUm9ja1hML3N0YXR1cy82MzY2MTcyMzg0MjcxMzYwMDEiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>Although networks like CNN eventually backpedaled and opted against playing the video of the Virginia shooting, the damage had already been done. Even worse, the reported shooter—who was a TV journalist—livetweeted his murderous act, releasing video from his <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/facebook" target="_self">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/twitter" target="_self">Twitter</a> and other <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/social-media" target="_self">social media</a> accounts. Within the first hour of the shooter’s videos appearing online, both companies suspended his accounts, ensuring their online communities wouldn’t be traumatized by witnessing graphic images of death. <p></p><blockquote class="pullquote">We should be concerned that there's still enough widespread, perverse interest in reproducing images of gun deaths, but not enough attention on preempting those deaths in the first place.</blockquote><p>However, the same cannot be said for when the deaths of <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/eric-garner" target="_self">Eric Garner</a>, <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/walter-scott" target="_self">Walter Scott</a>, and a number of other unarmed black people were caught on videotape and released online. Instead, news outlets ran with it for the days, weeks, and months that followed—both on TV and on the Internet. Each of those black victims had their own lives ahead of them, families and friends who cared, and a community of people already burdened with a steady stream of news about racialized police brutality and killings.&nbsp;</p><p>But those videos played on for the ostensible purpose of shocking some apathetic audiences into empathizing with black people and paying attention to the important messages from <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/black-lives-matter" target="_self">Black Lives Matter</a> activists. However, in the wake of the Virginia shooting, the feelings of journalists and their families outweighed the go-to argument about the “public’s right” to see what happened—and the video was pulled.</p><p>Although some would say the decisions—as they pertained to unarmed black people—were influential in gaining traction on the issue, it wasn’t enough to stop the deadly trend from persisting. For example, at least six black women were found dead in police custody in July alone, including <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/sandra-bland" target="_self">Sandra Bland</a>, whose fateful arrest was caught on both a police <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/dashcam">dashcam</a> and bystander videotape. There were many other unarmed black people who preceded her in death, at the hands of police officers and vigilantes, a news story that steadily gained traction following the murder of <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/trayvon-martin" target="_self">Trayvon Martin</a> in 2012.&nbsp;</p><p>However, here we are, three years later, and there’s been precious little done to fix issues of systemic <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/racism">racism</a> and state-sanctioned violence that targets black people.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JsYWNrUm9ja1hML3N0YXR1cy82MzY2MTcyMzg0MjcxMzYwMDEiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JyeWFuVE5SL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NzM2MDk2NjY5NDUwMjQiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><p></p><p>Indeed, the deaths from the Virginia shooting and the images of black death we’ve become accustomed to seeing stem from distinct circumstances—but they also share a common denominator of unchecked gun violence in America. Even before this shooting, many others preceded it—such as the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/charleston">Charleston</a> attack by a white supremacist, the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook</a> Elementary School shootings, and even as far back as the shooting deaths at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, and Columbine High School. Even as victims families grieved publicly, and as images of people running for their lives circulated all over the news, nothing substantial was done to help prevent these tragedies from happening again.</p><blockquote class="pullquote">The fact that gun violence claimed yet two more lives (that we know of) should be enough to move us to action.&nbsp;</blockquote><p>So it can’t necessarily be said that seeing the video of the Virginia shooting will be the <em>one</em>&nbsp;tragedy that prompts American politicians to seriously clamp down on gun regulation to get things done. We don’t need to see the shootings to know they happened; the fact that gun violence claimed yet two more lives (that we know of) should be enough to move us to action.&nbsp;</p><p>Rather, we should be concerned that there's still enough widespread, perverse interest in reproducing images of violent deaths, but not enough attention on preempting those deaths in the first place.</p><p><em>Derrick&nbsp;Clifton is the deputy opinion editor for the Daily Dot and a New York-based journalist and speaker, primarily covering issues of identity, culture, and social justice.</em></p><p><em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/darronb/8147134510/sizes/l">Darren Birgenheier</a>/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</em></p>
Derrick CliftonWed, 26 Aug 2015 22:44:39 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/Layer 8ViaDon't watch the video of two journalists being gunned down in Virginiahttp://www.dailydot.com/via/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/95/1f/951f28eb7913b8fb5917e97853277b68.jpg'></p>
<p>They were just doing their jobs.</p><p>While live on TV for a morning segment, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a broadcast reporter and a videographer at a Virginia news station, were both allegedly shot by a former employee of the station, Vester Lee Flanagan II. During their final moments, thousands of viewers and the station’s staff—including Ward’s fiance in the control room—watched in horror as screams and gunshots rang out, with the camera dropping to the ground. The two young <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/journalists/" target="_self">journalists</a>, both regarded as hard workers with bright futures, were killed in cold blood.</p><p>Yet early reports of the shooting from most networks followed a familiar pattern, one on display when deadly gun and police violence claimed lives on videotape. They played the disturbing footage for viewers across the United States and around the world, likely predicated on the notion that audiences have the right to see what happened firsthand. One major broadcaster in particular, namely <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/cnn" target="_self">CNN</a>, even noted during breaking news reports that they would only play the video once per hour. </p><p>If we need to see other people get gunned down on TV or on the Internet to be moved toward empathy, there’s something terribly wrong with our current state of affairs. One need not watch a videotaped execution to know that gun violence is an extreme problem in America. And the deaths of journalists, unarmed black people, and others cannot and should not be fodder for our infotainment. </p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL21hcmtmb2xsbWFuL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NjAwMzAxOTIzNzM3NjAiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL1RheWxvcmFuZEJlc3R5L3N0YXR1cy82MzY2NTA5ODcxNTYwNzQ0OTYiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL2NiY3RvbS9zdGF0dXMvNjM2NTc0MTM0Nzg5NjA3NDI1IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><p></p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JsYWNrUm9ja1hML3N0YXR1cy82MzY2MTcyMzg0MjcxMzYwMDEiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>Although networks like CNN eventually backpedaled and opted against playing the video of the Virginia shooting, the damage had already been done. Even worse, the reported shooter—who was a TV journalist—livetweeted his murderous act, releasing video from his <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/facebook" target="_self">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/twitter" target="_self">Twitter</a> and other <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/social-media" target="_self">social media</a> accounts. Within the first hour of the shooter’s videos appearing online, both companies suspended his accounts, ensuring their online communities wouldn’t be traumatized by witnessing graphic images of death. <p></p><blockquote class="pullquote">We should be concerned that there's still enough widespread, perverse interest in reproducing images of gun deaths, but not enough attention on preempting those deaths in the first place.</blockquote><p>However, the same cannot be said for when the deaths of <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/eric-garner" target="_self">Eric Garner</a>, <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/walter-scott" target="_self">Walter Scott</a>, and a number of other unarmed black people were caught on videotape and released online. Instead, news outlets ran with it for the days, weeks, and months that followed—both on TV and on the Internet. Each of those black victims had their own lives ahead of them, families and friends who cared, and a community of people already burdened with a steady stream of news about racialized police brutality and killings.&nbsp;</p><p>But those videos played on for the ostensible purpose of shocking some apathetic audiences into empathizing with black people and paying attention to the important messages from <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/black-lives-matter" target="_self">Black Lives Matter</a> activists. However, in the wake of the Virginia shooting, the feelings of journalists and their families outweighed the go-to argument about the “public’s right” to see what happened—and the video was pulled.</p><p>Although some would say the decisions—as they pertained to unarmed black people—were influential in gaining traction on the issue, it wasn’t enough to stop the deadly trend from persisting. For example, at least six black women were found dead in police custody in July alone, including <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/sandra-bland" target="_self">Sandra Bland</a>, whose fateful arrest was caught on both a police <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/dashcam">dashcam</a> and bystander videotape. There were many other unarmed black people who preceded her in death, at the hands of police officers and vigilantes, a news story that steadily gained traction following the murder of <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/trayvon-martin" target="_self">Trayvon Martin</a> in 2012.&nbsp;</p><p>However, here we are, three years later, and there’s been precious little done to fix issues of systemic <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/racism">racism</a> and state-sanctioned violence that targets black people.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JsYWNrUm9ja1hML3N0YXR1cy82MzY2MTcyMzg0MjcxMzYwMDEiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0JyeWFuVE5SL3N0YXR1cy82MzY1NzM2MDk2NjY5NDUwMjQiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><p></p><p>Indeed, the deaths from the Virginia shooting and the images of black death we’ve become accustomed to seeing stem from distinct circumstances—but they also share a common denominator of unchecked gun violence in America. Even before this shooting, many others preceded it—such as the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/charleston">Charleston</a> attack by a white supremacist, the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook</a> Elementary School shootings, and even as far back as the shooting deaths at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, and Columbine High School. Even as victims families grieved publicly, and as images of people running for their lives circulated all over the news, nothing substantial was done to help prevent these tragedies from happening again.</p><blockquote class="pullquote">The fact that gun violence claimed yet two more lives (that we know of) should be enough to move us to action.&nbsp;</blockquote><p>So it can’t necessarily be said that seeing the video of the Virginia shooting will be the <em>one</em>&nbsp;tragedy that prompts American politicians to seriously clamp down on gun regulation to get things done. We don’t need to see the shootings to know they happened; the fact that gun violence claimed yet two more lives (that we know of) should be enough to move us to action.&nbsp;</p><p>Rather, we should be concerned that there's still enough widespread, perverse interest in reproducing images of violent deaths, but not enough attention on preempting those deaths in the first place.</p><p><em>Derrick&nbsp;Clifton is the deputy opinion editor for the Daily Dot and a New York-based journalist and speaker, primarily covering issues of identity, culture, and social justice.</em></p><p><em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/darronb/8147134510/sizes/l">Darren Birgenheier</a>/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</em></p>
Derrick CliftonWed, 26 Aug 2015 22:44:39 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/virginia-shooting-death-video-news-infotainment/Layer 8ViaPutting metal detectors in movie theaters won't stop mass shootings in Americahttp://www.dailydot.com/via/metal-detectors-nashville-lafayette-shootings-security/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/46/a7/46a726c53f54bee8f18274f11a5723be.jpg'></p>
<p>Two recent attacks in movie theaters have had some theatergoers questioning the safety of a dark, packed, stadium of 200 people with no security checks. On Wednesday, a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/nashville">Nashville</a> movie theater was the scene of an attack by a man wielding a hatchet, pepper spray, and a BB gun. Last month, a shooter in <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/lafayette/">Lafayette</a>, Louisiana <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/john-rusty-houser-lafayette-shooting-online-footprint/">killed two and injured nine others</a> with a .40 caliber handgun.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PXpsRVFnVC1mVm9zIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>Each of these events have occurred as the the trial of <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/james-holmes">James Holmes</a> slogs through its sentencing phase. Holmes, who very well may face the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/death-penalty">death penalty</a>, killed 12 and injured 70 during a packed screening of <em><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/the-dark-knight-rises/">The Dark Knight Rises</a></em> in <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/aurora">Aurora</a>, Colorado back in 2012.<p></p><p>The apparent “trend” has some questioning whether theaters need security similar to that experienced at concerts or sporting events. Security expert Howard Levinson has worked with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/usa-shooting-louisiana-security-idUSL1N10426W20150724" target="_blank">over 100 theaters</a> since the Aurora shooting to install metal detectors and night vision cameras, while training staff to look for troubling behavior. According to <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/lafayette-louisiana-movie-theater-shooting-impact-1201555585/" target="_blank">a study</a> by research firm C4, a third of moviegoers support measures like metal detectors and armed guards, and 14 percent even support an armed guard per movie theater, like Air Marshals on planes.</p><p>This is all absurdly reactionary—there is no data to support the idea that movie theaters have specifically become a target for <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/james-holmes-mass-shootings-mental-illness/">mass shootings</a>, let alone because of lax security. As <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/gun-free-zones-mass-shootings" target="_blank">a Mother Jones analysis</a> of 62 mass killings found, the prevalence of security is rarely a consideration when shooters select locations to target. More importantly, however, is the lack of evidence in support of the security measures consumers seem to want.</p><blockquote class="pullquote">There is no data to support the idea that movie theaters have specifically become a target for&nbsp;mass shootings, let alone because of lax security.&nbsp;</blockquote><p>Bag checks and pat downs often make us feel safer, if a little violated, but they rarely do much to deter a determined attacker. A rash of school shootings in the 1990s and early aughts saw many schools increase security. According to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nasponline.org/advocacy/schoolsecurity.pdf" target="_blank">a 2009 study</a>&nbsp;by the National Association of School Psychologists, 68 percent of high school students report seeing armed guards or police officers in school buildings, 70 percent report the use of security cameras, and 11 percent of students report going through metal detectors before entering school.</p><p>But according to <a href="http://www.edweek.org/media/hankin-02security.pdf" target="_blank">a 2009 analysis</a> in the <em>Journal of School Health</em>, “there is insufficient data... to determine whether the presence of metal detectors in schools reduces the risk of violent behavior among students, and some research suggests that the presence of metal detectors may detrimentally impact student perceptions of safety.” </p><p>The more security measures we adopt in places that are actually pretty safe, the more we cultivate the irrational paranoia that encourages consumers to demand that surveillance in the first place. Metal detectors in theaters, just as in schools and airports and sports stadiums, are merely there to comfort the minds of those entering the building and keep liability low for those who own it. A group of survivors of the Aurora shooting are <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27838559/aurora-theater-shooting-suits-against-cinemark-set-july" target="_blank">suing the Cinemark theater</a> where the incident took place for supposedly neglectful security standards. </p><p>The concept of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater">security theater</a>”—when security measures seem more effective than they really are—achieved mainstream status after the implementation of increased security at airports after the terrorist attacks on <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/september-11">September 11</a>, in which 19 hijackers managed to get through <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/tsa">TSA</a> with box cutters. Airport security has gotten seemingly more stringent and invasive in the 14 years since those attacks, but study after study finds that razor blades and even firearms can still make it through undetected. Just this past June, the head of the TSA was “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/01/politics/tsa-failed-undercover-airport-screening-tests/" target="_blank">reassigned</a>” after agents failed to find firearms and explosives in baggage a staggering 95 percent of the time.</p><p>Keep in mind, that’s after three successful hijackings that ended in the largest terrorist attack in history and numerous attempts since. That’s also after $8 trillion in federal spending to prevent precisely those incidents. If a decade’s worth of research, two presidential administrations, and a massive outcry by the public can’t even keep airplanes safe, will we be any more effective at making movie theaters safer?</p><blockquote class="pullquote">Bag checks and pat downs often make us feel safer, if a little violated, but they rarely do much to deter a determined attacker.</blockquote><p>The sad, seemingly unacceptable truth is tragedies like those experienced in Nashville, Lafayette, and Aurora may not have truly been preventable through the simple safety precautions measures that we often ask for in response to mass shootings. Security theater is a popular solution not because it works but because it <em>feels</em> like it works. It gives us—the moviegoers, sports fans, and passengers not bent on horrific violence—a sense of control over a society that seems to produce a great number of broken people with easy access to weaponry. </p><p>The drawbacks of expanded theater security are not simply the expense of implementing armed guards and metal detectors. While customers want more security, the C4 study also found that they didn’t want to have to pay for it—in the form of increased&nbsp;ticket or concession prices. Putting the burden on individual theaters also allow us to ignore more lasting solutions, such as sweeping gun control reform and increased resources for the mentally ill.</p><p>Mass shootings are a real and unique problem to American culture. A study published earlier this week by the Congressional Research Council found that deaths in mass killings <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/04/report-mass-public-shootings-rise/31071301/" target="_blank">have increased</a>&nbsp;from an average of six a year in the 1970s to an average of 33 between 2010 and 2013. Ignoring this problem is not an option. But as President <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/obama">Barack Obama</a> said in <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/12/16/167412995/transcript-president-obama-at-sandy-hook-prayer-vigil" target="_blank">his vigil</a> for the victims of the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> shooting in 2012, “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage?”&nbsp;</p><p>If the outcry after every public killing is any indication, the answer to that question is a resounding no. However, if all we’re willing to do is install metal detectors and hire a few guards, instead of tackling the difficult and complex causes of this phenomenon, it certainly feels like we are.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Gillian Branstetter is a social commentator with a focus on the intersection of technology, security, and politics. Her work has appeared in the&nbsp;</em>Washington Post<em>, Business Insider, Salon, the Week, and xoJane. She attended Pennsylvania State University. Follow her on Twitter&nbsp;</em><a href="https://twitter.com/GillBranstetter" target="_blank"><em>@GillBranstetter</em></a>.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/5604657238/sizes/l">Sam Howzit</a>/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</em></p>
branstetterb@gmail.com (Gillian Branstetter)Thu, 06 Aug 2015 18:03:04 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/metal-detectors-nashville-lafayette-shootings-security/Layer 8ViaThe biggest threat to your child's safety isn't toy guns—it's the real oneshttp://www.dailydot.com/via/toy-gun-control-chuck-amy-schumer/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/ac/82/ac82b997cd03bd92ab9421414e85967f.jpg'></p>
<p>If you’re worried about the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/government">government</a> taking away your guns, you should only really be worried about the plastic kind.&nbsp;</p><p>Toy guns have come under fire after <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/new-york" target="_self">New York</a> Attorney General Eric Schneiderman forced three major retailers to stop selling realistic-looking <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/03/news/companies/toy-gun-sales-new-york/" target="_blank">fake plastic firearms</a>. While toy guns sold at <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/amazon" target="_self">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/walmart" target="_self">Walmart</a>, and Sears have had the famous orange tip on their barrels since federal law began requiring them in 1989, New York state law requires they also have an orange stripe down the side—and New York City regulation even requires that the toys be completely orange. Despite these policies, Schneiderman said <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/03/news/companies/toy-gun-sales-new-york/" target="_blank">in a statement</a>, “Year after year, we found retailers chose profit over safety.”</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PW1NWXZmaElmREJzIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>The battle over toy guns can help us understand how and why real guns are so difficult to restrict—and so easy to own. The toy industry and retailers, in stark contrast to their counterparts who make and sell firearms, bow to societal pressures in the name of keeping children safe. Toy guns deserve to be regulated because they can and have posed a serious risk to children and police officers. However, the degree to which retailers and manufacturers bend to keep toys safe should be held in stark contrast to the brick wall gun control advocates meet when they fight for the same.<p></p><p>The Schneiderman ruling, which includes a $300,000 collective fine for the companies, is rather surprising when one considers how hard retailers have fought for the right to sell real guns how and when they please. Critics often target Walmart in particular—as it’s the largest gun retailer in the United States. The ubiquitous chain sells a variety of hunting rifles, as well as automatic, high-capacity weaponry like the gun used by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/james-holmes" target="_self">James Holmes</a>. While Walmart is willing to accept the regulation of toy guns, they’ve spent untold millions in legal battles to prevent anyone from touching the actual threat to kids.</p><p>The danger of toy guns and airsoft rifles is real, and not simply because they desensitize children to the risk of their high-power counterparts (<em>USA Today</em>’s Jonathan Zimmerman <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/12/04/toy-guns-cleveland-police-column/19901479/" target="_blank">accurately compares</a> toy guns to candy cigarettes). While official counts of children or adults being targeted for wielding a toy gun are few and far between—Schneiderman claims New York state has seen 63 children shot by police who thought their toy guns were real since 1994—the stories do begin to pile up.&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="pullquote">While Walmart is willing to accept the regulation of toy guns, they’ve spent untold millions in legal battles to prevent anyone from touching the actual threat to kids.</blockquote><p>Last February, the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/lapd" target="_self">LAPD</a> shot a 15-year-old wielding an orange-tipped toy gun. Last November, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/tamir-rice">Tamir Rice</a> was shot and killed after Cleveland police mistook his airsoft rifle for the real deal, and a judge has ruled the officer <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/us/tamir-rice-judge-recommendation/" target="_blank">will face murder charges</a>. Police have also shot a <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Inside-the-final-minutes-before-Andy-Lopez-s-5607654.php" target="_blank">13-year-old in Santa Rosa, California</a>&nbsp;in 2013 and a <a href="http://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/1283535-Youth-brandishing-toy-gun-fatally-shot-by-Ark-officer/" target="_blank">12-year-old in Arkansas</a> in 2007, all because they mistook toy weapons for real ones.</p><p>Their stories are chilling not just because of the mistaken happenstance that led to their death—all children playing with their friends in broad daylight shot dead by otherwise good cops—but because of the risks it poses to even the most careful parent.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PWFOMUlKNGdMamI4IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>But while these and many other incidents are serious tragedies, they do not come close to the rate at which children are killed by real guns. According to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/25/us-accidental-gun-deaths-100-children-yearly" target="_blank">research compiled</a> by the advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, 100 kids die each year in the U.S. from gun accidents—making it the single household item most likely to claim the life of a child. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, the total tally of children killed by guns is <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/11/guns-child-deaths-more-than-cancer/2073259/" target="_blank">larger</a> than the number of troops injured in Afghanistan. Your child more is likely to die from a gun accident than from cancer.<p></p><p>Although many, like the Moms Demand Action group, are fighting to protect children from gun violence, we have yet to do the same as a nation. Attempts to regulate guns in the last few years have become depressingly unproductive. President <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a> <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/23/obama-most-frustrated-by-gun-control-debate/" target="_blank">recently cited</a> the lack of action in <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/congress">Congress</a> on gun laws as his biggest frustration during his presidency.</p><p>However, many others have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/nyregion/schumer-cousins-chuck-and-amy-team-up-on-curbing-gun-violence.html" target="_blank">refused to give up</a>. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently brought out his more famous cousin,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/amy-schumer">Amy Schumer</a>, to help push for gun reform after a gunman killed three during a screening of her new film <em><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/trainwreck">Trainwreck</a></em>. “These shootings have got to stop,” the actress and comedian said in a speech yesterday. “I don’t know how else to say it. ... These are not extreme ideas. No one wants to live in a country where a felon, the mentally ill or other dangerous people can get their hands on a gun with such ease.”</p><p>But as writer Dan Hodges <a href="https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/611943312401002496" target="_blank">wrote on Twitter</a>, the massacre of 20 grade school children and six faculty members at <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> in 2012 “marked the end of the U.S. gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PVQ1dzRHOXFWdWVrIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div>The ease with which the toymakers, an <a href="http://www.statista.com/topics/1108/toy-industry/" target="_blank">$84 billion industry</a>, accept government regulation to ensure the safety of their products stand in stark contrast to the epic tantrums the gun industry has against even the slightest safety measures. As Slate’s Evan DeFillipis and Devin Hughes <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/06/gun_deaths_in_children_statistics_show_firearms_endanger_kids_despite_nra.2.html" target="_blank">wrote</a>, teddy bears and <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/barbie">Barbie</a> dolls are subjected to numerous regulations and checks, yet their high-powered counterparts “have exactly zero federal safety standards regulating their designs.”&nbsp;<p></p><blockquote class="pullquote">According to the Children’s Defense Fund, the total tally of children killed by guns is&nbsp;larger&nbsp;than the number of troops injured in Afghanistan. Your child more likely to die from a gun accident than from cancer.</blockquote><p>The Consumer Product Safety Commission cites <a href="http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Toy-Safety/" target="_blank">scores of standards</a> for the materials used in toys, the electrical wiring of toys, the construction and shape of toys, the dexterity of toys, and how and why toys are tested by third parties. Toy companies are <a href="http://www.consumerproductmatters.com/2014/03/toy-companies-sued-for-importing-defective-products/" target="_blank">frequent</a> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-of-toddlers-killed-by-falling-dresser-sues-babies-r-us/" target="_blank">losers</a> in lawsuits over the injury or fatality of a child from one of their products, yet gun retailers and manufacturers manage to slip from the grasp of the <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/vice-avoiding-dismissal.pdf" target="_blank">many, many</a> families who have attempted to file suit. This is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nra-backed-federal-limits-on-gun-lawsuits-frustrate-victims-their-attorneys/2013/01/31/a4f101da-69b3-11e2-95b3-272d604a10a3_story.html" target="_blank">mostly thanks</a> to a 2005 law restricting lawsuits against gun manufacturers—which the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/nra">NRA</a> forced through a <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/republican">Republican</a>-held Congress.</p><p>The careful regulation of toy guns is important—I’d even argue against their sale altogether—but it takes away from highlighting the real risk to children simply a few aisles over. We treat everything our children touch with such legislative care, regulating the toxin level of the paint on a doll (to reduce the risk of cancer) and the visual graphics of a video game (to help prevent seizures). Gun retailers will likely never see the level of regulation toymakers face, a sad mix-up of priorities that endangers our children while making us feel like we’ve made them safer.</p><p><em>Gillian Branstetter is a social commentator with a focus on the intersection of technology, security, and politics. Her work has appeared in the&nbsp;</em>Washington Post<em>, Business Insider, Salon, the Week, and xoJane. She attended Pennsylvania State University. Follow her on Twitter&nbsp;</em><a href="https://twitter.com/GillBranstetter" target="_blank"><em>@GillBranstetter</em></a>.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/circasassy/7217850642/sizes/l">CircaSassy</a>/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</em></p>
branstetterb@gmail.com (Gillian Branstetter)Tue, 04 Aug 2015 23:26:16 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/toy-gun-control-chuck-amy-schumer/Layer 8Via7 fatal disasters that were blamed on homosexualityhttp://www.dailydot.com/irl/disasters-caused-by-the-gays/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/fe/8b/fe8b683b7e66ed4f3bde9104d955301c.jpg'></p>
<p>Earlier this week, Amtrak's Northeast Regional #188 <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/amtrak-train-derailment-philadelphia/">derailed in Philadelphia</a> on its way to New York after speeding up to more than 100 miles per hour, injuring dozens of passengers and killing eight.</p><p>Investigators are still scrambling to figure out what exactly happened; an Amtrak engineer is currently being scrutinized as the possible cause of the train wreck, as is <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/amtrak-crash/passenger-separate-amtrak-says-his-train-was-also-struck-n360031">an unidentified object that may have struck the train</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, <em>some </em>people have highlighted the engineer's <a href="http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2015/05/anti-gay-pundit-homosexuality-a-factor-in-amtrak-crash/">sexuality as a factor in the crash</a>. Elite Internet troll (and theoretically real person) <a href="https://twitter.com/chuckcjohnson">Chuck C. Johnson</a> has, of course, chimed in on the topic.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0NodWNrQ0pvaG5zb24vc3RhdHVzLzU5ODU5NDE2NjkzMTY2MDgwMCIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><p>Johnson is far from the first bloviator to link homosexuality to a tragic disaster. The most upstanding members of the U.S. political right wing and religious world have also propagated the idea that gays are to blame for some of the most horrific incidents in recent memory.&nbsp;<br></p><h2><strong>1) Hurricane Sandy</strong></h2><p>According to a blog post by chaplain John McTernan, the natural disaster that raged through the eastern seaboard is all thanks to the LGBT community and Obama's endorsement of marriage equality.&nbsp;</p><p>The post has since been deleted, but the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/hurricane-sandy-gays-same-sex-marriage-obama-romney_n_2038781.html">Huffington Post reported</a>&nbsp;that McTernan wrote: "God is systematically destroying America... Just look at what has happened this year."</p><p></p><p></p><h2><strong>2) The 2011 tsunami and earthquakes in Japan</strong></h2><p>In 2011, Cindy Jacobs of the Generals International ministry <a href="http://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2011/04/06/cindy-jacobs-gays-caused-japanese-quake-tsunami">linked the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"</a> to the tsunami and earthquakes in Japan that resulted in 16,000 deaths.</p><p>Earlier that year, she also blamed mass birth deaths on the DATD repeal.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PWsxM1N3RUZxQ3FnIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><p></p><h2><strong>3) The Sandy Hook shooting</strong></h2><p></p><p>The Westboro Baptist Church let the world know that the <a href="http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/12/16/us-church-gay-rights-caused-newton-school-shooting-massacre/">shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut</a>&nbsp;happened because God needed to let the world know that he was angry about the progression of LGBT rights.&nbsp;</p><p></p><h2><strong>4) 9/11</strong></h2><p>On the&nbsp;<em>700 Club</em>, Jerry Falwell famously&nbsp;<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121322">preached</a>&nbsp;about the biggest terrorist attack on American soil:&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="">I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularized America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'</blockquote><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PVBfOGRTbktpYUQ0IiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><h2><strong>5) Germanwings plane crash</strong></h2><p></p><p><font color="#232323">As with Chuck C. Johnson and the Amtrak engineer, RWW News reports that talk radio host&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=092Y1aYZkWc">Bryan Fischer </a>cited the gay porn websites that appeared in copilot Andreas Lubitz's browser history in connection with his reported suicidal instincts and desire to take a passenger plane down.&nbsp;</font><br></p><p><font color="#232323">Fischer said:&nbsp;</font></p><blockquote class=""><font color="#232323">It</font>'s striking that one of the health risks that's associated with homosexual behavior is an increased risk of suicidal ideation... Now we are discovering that, perhaps, [Lubitz] was involved in homosexuality, was taking drugs for depression, and perhaps that would explain his suicidal crash of that plane.</blockquote><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbS93YXRjaD92PTA5MlkxYVlaa1djIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><h2><strong>6) The California drought</strong></h2><p></p><p><font color="#232323">Between the earthquake and the hurricanes, the queer community is to blame for many of today's natural disasters. But let's add the drought happening in California right now to the list.</font></p><p>According to Christian radio broadcaster Rick Wiles,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thegailygrind.com/2015/05/14/steamy-hot-man-on-man-sex-is-the-cause-of-californias-mega-drought-says-christian-radio-host/">the drought</a>&nbsp;(as well as bird flu)&nbsp;is God's way of punishing America until the country halts its march toward marriage equality and pro-choice legislation.&nbsp;</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-iframe" contenteditable="false" data-value="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-PC9pZnJhbWU-IiwidHlwZSI6ImlmcmFtZSJ9"></div><p></p><h2><strong>7) Sodom and Gomorrah</strong></h2><p>Long story short: One of these cities was so gay it gave us a technical name for butt-sex, so God destroyed it. Our bad.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Update 12:14pm CT,&nbsp;May 18:</strong> An earlier version of this article stated that Bryan Fischer was from RWW News. He actually made that comment on an American Family Association radio show, which is not affiliated with RWW.</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/8065672959/in/photolist-dhJFyT-a97sHf-6vvGsS-anGb5F-qrr6Ng-nSkiyk-nTUJph-nZLUqP-6JcPxG-4rcG5y-nDpT19-nwoD3A-oytTKC-ocysvx-ocysJP-9Xvpja-8pnQHU-cYNAQm-oCwfsu-nDqZ9Z-pSrtaq-eeb6P2-ghZ2Kh-eZGB9N-a9cKZ6-cVJ5QN-a9cmee-5C6Dtj-9UKwRZ-qbo9Xo-pT9CpC-381q5-Fbjiu-6QCUpD-fCFsHe-5C2Kaj-6yWc3u-9Md2op-9UKFaF-9UKwj4-howNV-9UKJ38-odBMQd-KxaTa-oVvEtU-3gBRq-anJMjw-65wd8u-fCY3ju-6FZB51">Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr</a> (CC BY SA 2.0)</em>&nbsp;</p>
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gabebergado@gmail.com (Gabe Bergado)Sun, 17 May 2015 15:00:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/irl/disasters-caused-by-the-gays/IRLThe danger facing American Muslims is bigger than the Chapel Hill shootinghttp://www.dailydot.com/via/chapel-hill-shooting-muslims-media-islamophobia/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/4a/73/4a737048bd97541835fb2617e0aca58d.jpg'></p>
<p>In just one week, a&nbsp;<a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/13/arson-eyed-in-houston-area-mosque-torching.html" target="_blank">Houston mosque</a>&nbsp;was set on fire, a Michigan family was&nbsp;<a href="http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/news/id_10074/Muslim-family-attacked-while-shopping-at-Dearborn-Kroger.html" target="_blank">attacked</a>&nbsp;by a man shouting slurs against Muslims, and a Rhode Island school was&nbsp;<a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150215/NEWS/150219457/13819/TOPIC" target="_blank">vandalized</a>&nbsp;with anti-Islamic messages.&nbsp;These three events took place&nbsp;after the murder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFNEWzy-SHc" target="_blank">Yusor Mohammad</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ourthreewinners/posts/503585609779410" target="_blank">Deah Barakat</a>,&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203518503619937&amp;set=a.1523703609256.79104.1134591653&amp;type=1" target="_blank">Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha</a>—three innocent Americans gunned down in Chapel Hill, N.C., this week.</p><p>Though their confessed killer, Craig Stephen Hicks,&nbsp;is locked up behind bars where he should be, the conditions that led to their deaths are still running rampant. Hicks didn't act alone.&nbsp;He may have pulled the trigger, but it was the pervasive Islamophobia in American society that loaded the gun.</p><p></p><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vVVNNQ2NtYnR2ZXQvc3RhdHVzLzU2NjgyMDU1MzI2NTUzMjkyOCIsInR5cGUiOiJvZW1iZWQifQ.."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vSGFsVHVybmVyMjAxNC9zdGF0dXMvNTY2OTc5NTEzNTM2Mzc2ODMyIiwidHlwZSI6Im9lbWJlZCJ9"></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vSmltSm0xNjYwL3N0YXR1cy81NjcwNDY1NDgyNDU0NjcxMzYiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL0themVTa3l6L3N0YXR1cy81NjY2MzA0MTE1MzE3MjY4NDgiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div><div class="ddgce-embed ddgce-embedded-oembed" contenteditable="false" data-value="eyJ1cmkiOiJodHRwOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vU2lrb3RpSGFtaWx0b25SL3N0YXR1cy81NjU2MDU5MjI0MjU1NDA2MDkiLCJ0eXBlIjoib2VtYmVkIn0."></div>As NYC Mayor <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/bill-de-blasio">Bill de Blasio</a> put it at a press conference amid 2014's <a href="https://solfege.hackpad.com/ep/search/?q=%23BlackLivesMatter&amp;via=RHKznzXB4Jt" target="_blank">#BlackLivesMatter</a><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/nyc-eric-garner-protest-dec-3-photos/" target="_self">&nbsp;protests</a>, the response of&nbsp;<a href="https://solfege.hackpad.com/ep/search/?q=%23MuslimLivesMatter&amp;via=RHKznzXB4Jt" target="_blank">#MuslimLivesMatter</a>&nbsp;is "a phrase that should never have to be said. It should be self-evident,&nbsp;but our history, sadly, requires us to say it."<p></p><p>The same holds true when&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/0910/Obama_We_are_not_at_war_with_Islam.html" target="_blank">presidents</a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/13/zelizer.bush.muslims/index.html" target="_blank">had</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-president-we-are-not-at-war-with-islam/" target="_blank">say</a>&nbsp;"we are not at war with <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/islam">Islam</a>." The prevalence of the perception that the war on terror amounts to a war on Islam points to how the tension felt by <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/muslims">Muslim</a> communities ever since 9/11 got a shock to its system from the&nbsp;<a href="https://solfege.hackpad.com/ep/search/?q=%23ChapelHillShooting&amp;via=RHKznzXB4Jt" target="_blank">#ChapelHillShooting</a>.</p><p>This was never about an individual case. It would be easy and convenient to&nbsp;dismiss&nbsp;this as a&nbsp;"parking dispute,"&nbsp;without confronting the bigger picture of systemic <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/islamophobia">Islamophobia</a>, and a culture of fear surrounding Muslim communities. That this event's status as a hate crime&nbsp;was ever in question highlights the feeling many have expressed that a double standard exists in the media where&nbsp;violence&nbsp;against Muslims goes&nbsp;unrecognized, misrepresented, and downplayed in&nbsp;its shocking gravity.</p><p>Western media's biased representation of Muslims has created a climate of hatred and hostility. Not only are Muslim&nbsp;representations&nbsp;in the media few and far between, those limited portrayals are&nbsp;filled with negative, damaging&nbsp;stereotypes applied wholesale to all members of the religion. "Anti-Muslim sentiment and crime are, at least in part, driven by one-sided, narrow, sensationalistic, and arguably bigoted western media portrayals of Islam and Muslims," says Dr. Mohamad Elmasry, professor of Communications at the University of North Alabama.</p><p>Despite the fact that&nbsp;the global Muslim community&nbsp;is made up of 1.5 billion people with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/" target="_blank">a myriad of opinions</a>&nbsp;and a widely diverse culture, the mainstream representation of Muslims has been of a single homogenous identity—one worthy of suspicion and prone to violence—in a climate that&nbsp;has left many Muslims <a href="https://www.facebook.com/suhaib.webb/photos/a.10151924834013080.1073741825.19127328079/10153051078978080/?type=1&amp;theater">feeling unsafe</a>.</p><p>"After every time a Muslim commits an act of violence, whenever I'm out in public I can feel everyone looking at me," says Nerdeen Kiswani, a student at Hunter College in New York who says she has been&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/palestian-american-college-student-claims-assaulted-nets-game-article-1.1982604" target="_blank">attacked</a>&nbsp;for wearing a hijab. "But even when it's Muslims who have had violence committed against them, I still feel everyone looking and staring at me."</p><p>Christopher Bail, assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, has analyzed the representation of Islam and Muslims in America following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I found that angry and fearful fringe organizations not only exerted powerful influence on media discourse about Muslims in the aftermath of the attacks, but ultimately became some of the most influential in the field," said Bail.</p><p><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/549798/the-fringe-effect-bail-asr.pdf" target="_blank">Research</a>&nbsp;showing terms like "terrorist," "extremist," or "Islamist" began to be overwhelmingly paired with Islam and shaped public perception to fit the language used. "The&nbsp;'Muslims as enemies'&nbsp;frame depicts all Muslims as potentially violent radicals who have a religious obligation to overthrow Western governments," said Bail, while also pointing out, however,&nbsp;that "numerous studies have revealed a marked decrease in terrorism by self-described Muslims."</p><p>If mainstream media outlets haven't learned their lesson from 9/11, they certainly haven't&nbsp;changed their ways&nbsp;after the&nbsp;<em><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/charlie-hebdo">Charlie Hebdo</a></em>&nbsp;saga. Pervasive, frenzied coverage crying&nbsp;"terrorism!"&nbsp;managed to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/mainstream-media-ignoring-boko-haram-attacks/" target="_self">overshadow</a>&nbsp;both a massacre of more than 2,000 Nigerians by <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/boko-haram">Boko Haram</a>, as well as&nbsp;<a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/96655/charlie-hebdo-actes-islamophobes" target="_blank">dozens of violent attacks</a>&nbsp;against Muslims throughout Europe.&nbsp;However, it&nbsp;was&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/fox-news">Fox News</a>&nbsp;pundit Jeanine Pirro&nbsp;who&nbsp;completed the circle of hypocrisy when she emphatically bellowed&nbsp;that&nbsp;"we need to kill them" in an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/1/12/7533159/fox-news-pirro-rant" target="_blank">unhinged rant</a>&nbsp;to a national television audience of millions. If Pirro were in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/charlie-hebdo-pharos-anti-terrorism/" target="_self">France</a>, she might very likely be arrested&nbsp;under the country's hate&nbsp;speech&nbsp;laws, except for the fact that country's law enforcement is <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/daa75ef2d66c482bafa728af9c8b9b55/french-arrests-beg-question-free-speech-all">markedly biased against Muslims</a> as well.</p><p>Fox&nbsp;isn't the only news outlet to&nbsp;have&nbsp;dropped&nbsp;the ball.&nbsp;Religious&nbsp;scholar Reza Aslan challenged<em>&nbsp;</em>CNN&nbsp;for its&nbsp;misleading use of the term "Muslim countries" to overemphasize sectarian conflicts, poor human rights conditions,&nbsp;and inequality for women in a narrow subset of countries,&nbsp;presenting&nbsp;them as representative of the entire world of Islam.&nbsp;In an interview with&nbsp;CNN'<em>s</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/don-lemon">Don Lemon</a> and Alisyn Camerota,&nbsp;Aslan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzusSqcotDw" target="_blank">gracefully put to shame</a>&nbsp;the anchors' assertions about the Muslim world:</p><blockquote>Camerota: Defenders of Islam insist it is a peaceful religion. Others disagree, and point to the primitive treatment in Muslim countries of women and other minorities.<br><br>Aslan: Do you&nbsp;know&nbsp;that Muslims have elected&nbsp;<em>seven</em>&nbsp;women as their heads of states in those Muslim-majority countries?<br><br>Lemon: But Reza, be honest though. It's not a free and open society for women in those states.<br><br>Aslan: Well, it's not in Iran, it's not in Saudi Arabia, but it certainly is in Indonesia, and Malaysia, and Bangladesh, it certainly is in Turkey… You see the problem is you're talking about a religion of about one and a half billion people, and it becomes very easy to simply paint them all with a single brush by saying "well, in Saudi Arabia they can't drive," and that that's somehow representative of Islam.</blockquote><p>Journalists themselves have even faced more vitriol than the killers they write about simply for writing about a controversial topic. Journalist Rania Khalek faced&nbsp;<a href="https://storify.com/RaniaKhalek/tcotsniper" target="_blank">vile threats and harassment</a>&nbsp;after writing about reactions to&nbsp;<a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/13/why-hollywoods-war-stories-need-to-be-true/" target="_blank"><em>American Sniper</em></a>, a film that glorifies the killing of Arabs and portrays them as "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-green-phd/american-sniper-and-the-muslim_b_6634768.html" target="_blank">savages</a>."&nbsp;</p><p>Yet when <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/adam-lanza">Adam Lanza</a> killed 20 children at <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> in 2012, the media coverage worked to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=adam+lanza+described&amp;hl=en&amp;biw=1420&amp;bih=783&amp;source=lnt&amp;tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A12%2F3%2F2012%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F2012&amp;tbm=nws" target="_blank">humanize</a>&nbsp;the mass murderer, analyzing his psyche and delving into his troubled childhood. And when <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/james-holmes">James Holmes</a> went into a movie theatre in Aurora, Colo., armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, killed 12 people and injuring 70, he was described sympathetically as a "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/james-holmes-shooting_n_1690726.html" target="_blank">loner</a>" with "<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/07/24/how-james-holmes-will-be-evaluated-by-psychiatrists/" target="_blank">mental health issues</a>."&nbsp;</p><p>Such discrepancies in the characterization of criminal acts across racial and religious lines are&nbsp;sometimes subtle, sometimes overt;&nbsp;however,&nbsp;the continual reinforcement of anti-Muslim bias can create deep-seated resentment waiting to explode.&nbsp;</p><p>"The continued and persistent representation in the mass media of Muslims as uncivilized, violent, terrorist animals who hate the West, has contributed to a climate of hate and mistrust, and has caused viewers to come to understand Muslim lives as without positive value and do not matter," says Amin Husain, professor of Race and Media at the New School in New York City. "This makes killing Muslims permissible, if not excusable." In this volatile climate, all that's needed is one spark to incite someone to act out on their received prejudices.</p><p>While there's no way of knowing whether it was Jeanine Pirro's&nbsp;"we need to kill them!"<em>&nbsp;</em>tirade that pushed Hicks to homicide, the aggregate effect of the incessant reminder that we are constantly under threat of terrorism is itself a form of psychological terrorism.</p><p>The New York Police Department's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nyclu.org/news/rights-groups-file-lawsuit-challenging-nypds-muslim-surveillance-program-unconstitutional" target="_blank">pattern of targeting</a>&nbsp;Muslim communities with surveillance has been acknowledged as not only&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/liu-surveillance-muslim-unconstitutional-article-1.1335780" target="_blank">unconstitutional</a>&nbsp;but also&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/08/20128225928892204.html" target="_blank">ineffective</a>&nbsp;at providing America with more security. Like the U.S.'s war on terror, the only thing it accomplished was to sow suspicion and resentment among its citizens.</p><p>"In many parts of the Muslim world, the U.S. counterterrorism efforts are perceived as a war on Islam writ large," says Faiza Patel, co-director of Liberty &amp; National Security Program of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/expert/faiza-patel" target="_blank">Brennan Center for Justice</a>. "When you start targeting religious behavior, you feed into this notion that the United States, and particularly the FBI and the NYPD are at war with Islam, and that's what we really shouldn't be doing."</p><p>Terrorism may be the most important political issue of our time, and when media outlets report on it with a biased slant, they do a grave disservice to the public's&nbsp;interests&nbsp;and safety. When journalists tip the scales in showing us the&nbsp;<a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/10/u-s-media-13-year-old-yemeni-boy-killed-u-s-drone/" target="_blank">wars</a>&nbsp;the U.S. is engaged in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/oct/06/comment.usa" target="_blank">around the world</a>, they're actually putting Americans at home in danger of violence. When extremists take innocent lives, the answer is rarely so simply found in explanations like parking disputes or mental illness.&nbsp;</p><p>Sadly, the reality may be closer to the words of the "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruTu8MhSdR4" target="_blank">Woolwich cleaver</a>" Michael Adebolajo: "This is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We will never stop fighting you, until you leave us alone."</p><p><em>Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tataimitra/11146655355/sizes/l">R. Mitra</a>/Flickr (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a>)</em></p>
shawn@shawncarrie.net (Shawn Carrié)Tue, 17 Feb 2015 14:30:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/chapel-hill-shooting-muslims-media-islamophobia/Layer 8ViaSandy Hook victim's family seeks trademark to stop online harassmenthttp://www.dailydot.com/crime/family-sandy-hook-teacher-trademark-prevent-twitter-harassment/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/f5/d8/f5d826d406d66cd3711eb439ff9e92ab.jpg'></p>
<p>Perhaps the only thing worse than losing a loved one in a violent, senseless tragedy is to see their name abused and dragged through the mud after the fact.</p><p>Sadly, that’s what the family of Victoria Soto, a first-grade teacher who was killed during the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/" target="_self">Sandy Hook massacre</a>&nbsp;back in 2012, has been forced to endure. For some time now, the 27-year-old, who was killed in the mass shooting alongside five of her colleagues and 20 children, has been the subject of fake&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/twitter/" target="_self">Twitter</a>&nbsp;accounts that seek to spread&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/sandy-hook-truther-conspiracy-video/" target="_self">Sandy Hook conspiracy theories</a>&nbsp;and harass the slain school teacher’s family.</p><p>But now, Soto’s family is attempting to end this abuse in a rather unique way.</p><p>According to Victoria’s sister Jillian Soto, the family has applied to trademark Victoria’s name. If successful, a trademark could make it easier to have Twitter takedown fraudulent accounts. But whether they will be able to legally trademark the name is uncertain.</p><p>Jillian Soto told the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/11/sandy-hook-victim-victoria-soto-to-have-name-trademarked-to-prevent-abuse" target="_blank"><em>Associated Press</em></a>&nbsp;that most of the fake social media accounts that have been created in the two years since the massacre are for the express purpose of spreading conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook.</p><p>According to official police reports, 20-year-old Adam Lanza murdered his mother on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, before storming his former elementary school in Newtown, Conn., with multiple firearms and carrying out the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.</p><p>The killing sparked a major&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/obama-gun-control-petitions-response/" target="_self">debate</a>&nbsp;in the U.S. about gun control, especially after it became clear that Lanza was able to get his hands on firearms despite a history of mental and behavioral disorders. Because of this, a number of conspiracy theories have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/01/07/top-ten-reasons-sandy-hook-was-an-elaborate-hoax/" target="_blank">suggested</a>&nbsp;that Sandy Hook was a hoax, or otherwise orchestrated by the U.S. government as a ruse to enact gun control legislation. These people persist in the belief, propagated online with the hashtag #SandyHoax, despite that fact that no new gun restrictions have actually been enacted by the federal government since the shooting.</p><p>But by continuing to promote conspiracy theories online, Jillian Soto said that Sandy Hook “truthers” are inflicting emotional anguish on her family and diminishing the actions of her sister who helped hide students during the attack.</p><p>“Vicki did a heroic thing, there are 11 kids that are alive today because of the actions of my sister,” she said. “And we don’t need anything negative to be tied to her name any longer.”</p><p>Though trademarking her name won’t prevent the spread of conspiracy blogs or websites, it would give Victoria’s family a way to keep her name from being misappropriated on Twitter and to prevent interference with online fundraising efforts for the&nbsp;<a href="http://vickisotomemorial.com/" target="_blank">Vicki Soto Memorial Fund</a>, a scholarship fund set up in Victoria’s honor.</p><p>Right now, the family routinely has Twitter accounts taken down that claim to be Victoria, but this process can be time-consuming as Twitter must investigate each claim for abuse. But Jillian Soto said a trademark would shorten the process.</p><p>“Now we can say, ‘Look they can’t use this name, it has to come down right now,’” she said.</p><p>The trademark application was filed on Monday, but it’s unclear if the Sotos will be successful. It is possible to trademark a person’s name, in fact celebrities do it all the time, according to Seattle attorney Beth Hutchens writing for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/02/11/trademark-of-sarah-palin/id=15274/" target="_blank"><em>IPWatchdog</em></a>. But they must fulfill several specific requirements that Soto may not be able to meet.</p><p>According to Hutchens, to obtain a trademark for a person’s name, that name must be unique to the point where it is most commonly associated with that person. The name also has to be associated with some sort of commercial activity.</p><p>“A person’s name has to be so distinctive that the consuming public automatically thinks of a particular person when hearing that name, not just a person with that name,” Hutchens writes. “You show this by providing evidence of what is called ‘secondary meaning.’ Secondary meaning means that even though the word is descriptive (like an adjective or a name), people don’t think of the adjective or name as a descriptor, they think of YOU.”</p><p><em>Photo via&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="http://vickisotomemorial.com/gallery/" target="_blank">Vicki Soto Memorial Fund</a></em></p>
tim@dailydot.com (Tim Sampson)Thu, 12 Feb 2015 00:08:18 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/crime/family-sandy-hook-teacher-trademark-prevent-twitter-harassment/TwitterLayer 8CrimeThe shocking realities of Canada's parliament tragedyhttp://www.dailydot.com/via/canadian-parliament-shooting-gun-violence/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/60/09/60090e9982e04a58de24da5201c93554.jpg'></p><p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a"><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/canada/">Canada</a></span>&nbsp;was&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/shooting-canadian-parliament-ottawa">rocked by gun violence</a>&nbsp;earlier this week as Corporal Nathan Cirillo was gunned down in front of Canada&rsquo;s National War Memorial in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/ottawa/">Ottawa</a>&nbsp;and, moments later, shots rang out in the hallowed halls of Parliament, forcing MPs to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/world/americas/canada-ottawa-shooting/index.html">barricade themselves</a>&nbsp;in with desks and chairs while they&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2014/oct/22/canadian-parliament-lockdown-shooting">waited for help</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
The international community was quick to respond with support and condolences, but for many in the U.S., the news felt painfully, oddly familiar; from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/aurora/">Aurora</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/gabby-giffords/">Gabby Giffords</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/boston-marathon/">Boston Marathon</a>, violence has become an everpresent aspect of life in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/america/">America</a>. It is, in fact, so ubiquitous that a mass killing (an event with four or more victims, according to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/fbi/">FBI</a>&nbsp;criteria) occurs&nbsp;<a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/mass-killings/index.html#frequency">once every two weeks</a>&nbsp;in the United States.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">The amount of violence in the U.S. might seem to be on the rise, and&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/violence/">violence</a>&nbsp;might seem to be a uniquely American problem, but the situation is a little more complicated than that. Examining nations similar to the U.S.&mdash;with comparable social, cultural, and political environments&mdash;reveals that while the U.S. has a much higher rate of violence than other nations, it&rsquo;s not alone. Furthermore, other nations have mass shootings and other mass murder events&mdash;and, across the industrialized world, rates of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/guns/">gun</a>&nbsp;violence are dropping. The claim that we are living in a more violent world, or that the U.S. is influencing global&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/violence/">crime</a>&nbsp;rates, is not very accurate.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Within the U.S., most mass killings</span>&mdash;slightly over half&mdash;involve breakups, estrangements, and other forms of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/domestic-violence/">domestic violence</a>&nbsp;directed at family members, a reminder that an estimated&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pbs.org/kued/nosafeplace/studyg/domestic.html">1,500 women</a>&nbsp;are killed in violent relationships annually. Only one in six occurs on the dramatic scale of events like Newton, and it is typically these events that are reported in the national&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/media/">media</a>&nbsp;due to their horrific scale, while shootings related to domestic violence rarely, if ever, make mainstream media. Most Americans, if asked, would affirm the commonly accepted knowledge that the number of mass shootings per year is increasing, but they might be surprised to learn that&nbsp;<a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/06/mass-shootings-arent-on-the-rise.html">this is not actually the case</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">In fact, statistically speaking, the number of mass shooting events in the U.S., including school shootings, is holding quite steady, though the number of victims is making a slow but definite upward climb.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Why, then, is there such a powerful feeling that things are getting worse? Media coverage plays a big role. It&#39;s almost hard to believe today, but there was a time in the not too distant past when people in New York might not even hear about a school shooting that happened across the country. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span>Today, every incident immediately explodes onto the national stage and is then amplified a millionfold by <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/social-media">social media</a>. It&#39;s a visceral example of the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic">availability heuristic</a><span>&mdash;the easier it is for us to think of a certain type of event (whether a school shooting or a plane crash), the higher we rate its probability. But this is an illusion; just because it&#39;s easier than it ever has been to think of an example of a shooting doesn&#39;t mean these events are more likely than they were in the past.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">The&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/internet/">Internet</a>&nbsp;has played a huge role in this phenomenon, thanks to the rapidity of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and other&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/social-media/">social media</a>, which keeps news in the limelight constantly, from the minute it begins to unfold. From the first tweets and photos that hit the web within instants of the event, sent live from the scene by terrified and confused victims, to updates from family members, to news organizations trying to be first to break the story, to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/law-enforcement/">police departments</a>&nbsp;desperately trying to control information and calm the public, the Internet feeds a horrified obsession with mass violence events.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
In the initial minutes or hours, speculation runs rampant&mdash;the shooter is mentally ill, the shooter is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/muslim/">Muslim</a>, the shooter has some other beef with the U.S., and people struggle to make sense of the news. The event is followed up with thinkpieces, commentaries, roundtable discussions on the news, and pledges of &ldquo;never again&rdquo; that only appear to be broken two weeks later.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Residents of the United States feel like there are more mass shootings than ever before because they are attuned to them. While events like Columbine were shattering and riveting for the U.S., it wasn&rsquo;t until the advent of widespread, saturated social media that mass shootings began to be reported upon with regularity, with a specific focus on high-casualty, random events. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span>The Aurora shooting was terrifying because it involved a certain loss of innocence, as people had gone to the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/movies/">movies</a>&nbsp;as a form of escapism, not to be shot down by a ruthless gunman. The Gabby Giffords shooting was a grim echo of the attempt on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/reagan/">Reagan&rsquo;s</a>&nbsp;life and the JFK assassination. Sandy Hook was a terrible reminder of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/columbine/">Columbine</a>&nbsp;and the fear that children aren&rsquo;t even safe in school.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Moreover, reporting on mass shootings has become highly politicised. Conservative media tend to want to play down incidents of gun violence in the U.S., while liberal media want to do just the opposite, as many left-leaning publications support tighter&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/gun-control/">gun control</a>&nbsp;laws and argue that high rates of gun violence are testimony to the need to reduce gun ownership.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
Thus,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jun/13/everytown-gun-safety/have-there-been-74-school-shootings-sandy-hook-clo/">misleading numbers using massaged data</a>&nbsp;are thrown around, making it extremely difficult to pick through for the facts, especially when even the FBI doesn&rsquo;t keep accurate records. While the FBI is not entirely at fault for this, as it relies on reports from regional law enforcement and FBI offices, the organization freely admits that its recordkeeping is not perfect.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Setting aside questionable data on mass murders, overall gun violence in the U.S. has actually&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?iid=4616&amp;ty=pbdetail">fallen since 1993</a>, according to Bureau of Justice statistics. Homicides involving firearms dropped 39 percent between 1993 and 2011, with non-fatal firearm crimes dropping even more, by 69 percent. While gun violence still accounted for 70 percent of fatal crimes over that period, the overall downward trend was a hopeful sign for the U.S., which has been historically regarded as a country rife with guns.&nbsp;<span>Tellingly, despite these findings,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/07/181998015/rate-of-u-s-gun-violence-has-fallen-since-1993-study-says">a Pew study</a><span>&nbsp;found that 56 percent of Americans think the rate of gun violence has increased, illustrating the influence of the media on how people perceive data.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Reporting inaccurately on gun violence provides media with fodder for more readers, listeners, and viewers. The news that gun violence is dropping makes for a far less compelling story. Reporting for NPR, Bill Chappell <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/07/181998015/rate-of-u-s-gun-violence-has-fallen-since-1993-study-says">noted</a>:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">
In an effort to explain that finding, the Pew researchers noted that while mass shootings are rare, they capture public interest and are often viewed as touchstone events that help define they year in which the crimes occur. As examples, they cite three shootings in the past two years, in Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; and in Newtown, Conn.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Notably, many&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/journalism/">journalists</a>&nbsp;didn&rsquo;t take time to account for statistics in their clarion call for better gun control in the United States in response to the Canadian killings. At the Huffington Post, for example, Paige Lavender&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/chrissy-teigen-canada-shooting-tweets_n_6029100.html">took the usual tack</a>&nbsp;in reporting the story, leveraging the incident as yet another call for tighter gun control.</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">And yet, U.S. lawmakers remain unwilling to take action on gun control. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six educators were killed, the debate over gun control was reignited. But in the years since the shooting,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/gun-control-newtown_n_4425157.html">Congress has passed zero</a>&nbsp;gun control laws.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">The curious, and tragic, thing about the decision to ignore statistics in favor of sensationalist journalism is that the U.S. does have a gun crime problem and reporting honestly on it would make it impossible to escape.&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/17/223508595/around-the-world-gun-ownership-and-firearms-deaths-go-together">More Americans own guns</a>&nbsp;than in any other industrialized nation, and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20571454">gun violence is a much bigger issue in the U.S.</a>&nbsp;than anywhere else. Simply reporting the facts would be enough to get the point across; even the real statistics are enough to make a persuasive case for better gun control.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
While the U.S. is clearly doing better in terms of gun crime, it&rsquo;s not there yet, and it could be looking to other nations for inspiration. In&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/australia/">Australia</a>, for example, where a mass shooting in the 1990s sparked gun control reform, the initiative turned out to be&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/canada-australia-japan-britain-gun-control-2013-1">highly successful</a>, pushing the rate of gun crime in the nation down even further.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">In an examination on&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/gun-homicides-ownership/table/">gun violence among wealthy nations</a>, statistics are quite revealing, even after controlling for population differences. While the rate of gun violence in the U.S. is indeed much, much higher than that of similar nations, Canada&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/23/gun-violence-in-canada-is-a-lot-more-common-than-you-think/">actually ranks fourth</a>&nbsp;in a listing of gun-related homicides among 12 industrial nations, with a rate of 0.5 people per 100,000 killed by gun violence. Still a far cry from the U.S.&rsquo;s 3.5, but not negligible, either.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
Canada has fewer gun deaths per year in numbers overall in part because of population differences, not just lower crime rates; the U.S. is nearly ten times as large as its neighbor to the north. Death by gun is not a uniquely American problem in industrialized nations, though it&rsquo;s often cast as one.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Like the U.S., Canada is experiencing a&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/violent-gun-crimes-continue-to-decline-statscan-reports/article18124398/">decline in gun violence</a>. So is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/britain/">Britain</a>, which has been experiencing&nbsp;<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21559646">a slow downward trend</a>, though the bombings on July 7 of 2005 definitely shook&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/london/">London</a>&nbsp;and reminded Britons that they weren&rsquo;t exempt from violent crime, as did the 2010&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/cumbria-shootings">Cumbria shootings</a>. In 2011,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/norway/">Norway</a>, which also has an extremely low rate of gun violence, experienced a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-look-back-at-the-norway-massacre/">brutal mass shooting</a>&nbsp;that riveted the world. A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/germany/">German</a>&nbsp;teen&nbsp;<a href="http://www.katv.com/story/26156165/teen-charged-with-capital-murder-in-stuttgart-shooting">opened fire in Stuttgart</a>&nbsp;in 2009. A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/finland/">Finnish</a>&nbsp;shooter&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/world/europe/24finland.html">killed ten people</a>&nbsp;in 2008.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
In the U.S., which stereotypes itself as plagued by an epidemic of gun violence, mass shootings are treated as par for the course with a sense of bitter resignation, but they really aren&rsquo;t; the American rate of gun violence is higher than other industrialized nations, and higher than it should be, but it is slowly dropping, making these incidents all the more troubling.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">While the United States may seem inured to violence, particularly gun violence, the story in nations like Canada and Britain, where gun control laws are extremely strict, is quite different. Canadians weren&rsquo;t just horrified by the attack on Parliament, but by the much more unusual event of gun violence itself. &ldquo;The assault in Ottawa shocked a country that rarely experiences gun violence but has witnessed two attacks on members of its armed forces in recent days,&rdquo; Carol Morello and Mark Berman&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/gunman-kills-canadian-soldier-opens-fire-inside-parliament-in-downtown-ottawa/2014/10/22/49a4ca3e-5a23-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html">wrote at the <em>Washington Post</em></a>, underscoring Canada&rsquo;s sense of exceptionalism when it comes to gun violence.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
While many Canadians remember the&nbsp;<a href="http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/12/05/12049016-sun.html">Ecole Polytechnique Massacre</a>&nbsp;(also called the Montreal Massacre) of 1989, in which 14 women were gunned down for having the audacity to study engineering, gun crime is much more remote in the Canadian cultural landscape&mdash;though this actually isn&rsquo;t the first time someone has&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/22/kevin-vickers-shooting-ottawa-parliament_n_6029832.html">opened fire in a Canadian government building</a>. Jason Hanna at CNN also remarked on the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/23/world/ottawa-shooting/index.html">shock among Canadians</a>&nbsp;over the attack.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Canada&rsquo;s immediate and visceral reaction to the shooting mirrored that of the U.S. in the wake of high-profile mass shootings&mdash;nations have a way of rallying together in the face of external dangers. What remains to be seen is what the next step is for Canada; has the nation&rsquo;s innocence been shattered as it was in 1989, or will it, like the U.S., return to business as usual? </span></p>
<p dir="ltr">
<span>The sense of shock in Canada may be more sustained because the nation is so unaccustomed to gun violence, which could lead to aggressive gun control reforms. If the nation does want to go that route, it might want to look to nations like Japan, where gun control is extremely tightly restricted and the number of gun deaths each year is less than 25; the year 22 people were killed by guns was an event worthy of&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/">national horror</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<em><span id="docs-internal-guid-609d097b-3f50-6b2c-bf41-671083b2631a">Photo via&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/greceres/5339316755">Greta Ceresini</a>/Flickr (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a>)</em></p>
S.E. SmithFri, 24 Oct 2014 12:00:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/canadian-parliament-shooting-gun-violence/Layer 8ViaThe inventor of the AK-47 just died and Twitter is firing parting shotshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-burns-mikhail-kalashnikov/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/f7/dc/f7dc4868908f0018c708132c02707573.jpg'></p><p class="p1">
The man who designed the AK-47 assault rifle, which has killed more human beings than any other firearm, just died himself at the ripe old age of 94. Shortly after the news broke, Mikhail Kalashnikov&rsquo;s name was trending on <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/twitter/"><span class="s1">Twitter</span></a>, with many users deploying the customary &ldquo;RIP.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">
But not everyone is wishing him a happy afterlife. Because he leaves a complicated legacy of carnage and terror in his wake, some simply had to spit on his grave. Here are a few of the hardest truths&mdash;and funniest cynical punchlines&mdash;to come out of Kalashnikov&rsquo;s demise:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
the inventor the AK-47, Mikhail Kalashnikov just died. Wouldn&#39;t have happened if he was carrying.</p>
&mdash; Desus (@desusnice) <a href="https://twitter.com/desusnice/statuses/415153774416498688">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
But his legacy lives on! RT <a href="https://twitter.com/Naharnet">@Naharnet</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Breaking&amp;src=hash">#Breaking</a> AFP: The designer of the AK-47, Russia&#39;s Kalashnikov, has died.</p>
&mdash; DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidKenner/statuses/415152862248067074">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
The inventor of the AK-47 has died. 80s movie villains everywhere are mourning the loss.</p>
&mdash; Jason Brooks (@JasonMuses) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonMuses/statuses/415182692217405440">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Mikhail Kalashnikov, creator of the AK-47 rifle, Is Dead. He died peacefully in his home of natural causes.</p>
&mdash; Achilles Stamatelaky (@astamate) <a href="https://twitter.com/astamate/statuses/415161700002709504">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
So... you mean to tell me Ice Cube didn&#39;t invent the AK-47?</p>
&mdash; Mike Andrick (@MikeAndrick) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeAndrick/statuses/415176949426696193">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Mikhail Kalashnikov, creator of the AK-47 just died at 94. Sure beats riddled with bullets from automatic rifle fire at 19.</p>
&mdash; High In America (@highinamerica) <a href="https://twitter.com/highinamerica/statuses/415175436142784512">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
What&#39;s frustrating is that if you&#39;re smart enough to invent the Ak-47 you&#39;re probably smart enough to invent like a better washing machine.</p>
&mdash; James Murtagh (@jamesmurtagh) <a href="https://twitter.com/jamesmurtagh/statuses/415175189430026242">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 rifle, is dead at 94. As someone who has been shot at by his creation, can&#39;t say I&#39;m mourning.</p>
&mdash; Mike Glenn (@mrglenn) <a href="https://twitter.com/mrglenn/statuses/415177948119842816">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ThanksObama&amp;src=hash">#ThanksObama</a> RT <a href="https://twitter.com/MailOnline">@MailOnline</a>: BREAKING: AK-47 inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov dies aged 94 - <a href="https://twitter.com/AP">@AP</a></p>
&mdash; daveweigel (@daveweigel) <a href="https://twitter.com/daveweigel/statuses/415160917819539456">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Inventor of the AK-47, Mikhail Kalashnikov, died today at the age of 94. Gangsta rappers everywhere are wearing their pants at half-mast.</p>
&mdash; Charlie Speez (@CharlieSpeez) <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlieSpeez/statuses/415174947049197568">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
AK-47 inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov has died. Expect the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NRA&amp;src=hash">#NRA</a> to feel worse about this than they did about Sandy Hook.</p>
&mdash; TBogg (@tbogg) <a href="https://twitter.com/tbogg/statuses/415160846113705984">December 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
<p class="p1">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA"><span class="s1">NRA</span></a>, though, has yet to comment on the matter&mdash;probably too busy arranging a 21-machine-gun salute.</p>
<p class="p1">
<i>Photo by </i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41506395@N02/"><span class="s1"><i>Michael Van Dyke</i></span></a><i>/Flickr</i></p>
miles@dailydot.com (Miles Klee)Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:31:12 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-burns-mikhail-kalashnikov/NewsTwitterThis developer turned the Sandy Hook massacre into a video gamehttp://www.dailydot.com/gaming/sandy-hook-massacre-video-game/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/a5/c1/a5c132e7387f632c08d4e496a5db0dc9.jpg'></p><p class="p1">
For the third time this year, a developer has turned a national tragedy into a controversial video game.</p>
<p class="p3">
<span class="s1">The name of the latest game is </span><i>The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary School</i>, and it allows users to play as <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/adam-lanza/"><span class="s2">Adam Lanza</span></a>, the man who killed 20 school children and six adults in the second deadliest school shooting by a lone gunman since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p3">
The game, which was produced by Ryan Jake Lambourn, places gamers inside Newtown, Conn.&rsquo;s Sandy Hook Elementary School to mow down students and staffers with a lightweight AR-15 rifle.</p>
<p class="p3">
Lambourn, who also created a game inspired by the Virginia Tech shootings, has argued that the game &ldquo;was intended to promote stricter gun control measures, a policy pursued by many in the aftermath of the shootings,&rdquo; the <i>Hartford Courant </i><a href="http://articles.courant.com/2013-11-19/news/hc-sandy-hook-slaying-video-game-20131119_1_sandy-hook-elementary-school-shooting-rampage-lanza-shot"><span class="s2">reported</span></a><i>. &nbsp;</i>On Twitter, Lambourn&rsquo;s game has been called <a href="https://twitter.com/kobboss/status/403220943683584001"><span class="s2">sick and disgusting</span></a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p4">
<span class="s3">&ldquo;</span>[G]uns dont kill people, people kill people. (but people who kill people with guns have a higher kill ratio than the alternatives),&rdquo; Lambourn, 27, <a href="https://twitter.com/googumproduce/status/403094242219667456"><span class="s2">tweeted</span></a> earlier today.</p>
<p class="p2">
The use of video games as social commentary on school shootings has its roots in 2005&rsquo;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Columbine_Massacre_RPG!"><span class="s2"><i>Super Columbine Massacre RPG</i></span></a><i>, </i>which puts players in the shoes of Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.</p>
<p class="p5">
<span class="s4">Developer Danny Ledonne explained the game wasn&#39;t intended to make light of the tragedy. &ldquo;</span>&quot;All forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration (even painful topics like school shootings),&rdquo; <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2007/10/footage-of-playing-columbine-a-documentary-about-video-game-controvery-released/"><span class="s2">he said</span></a> at the time.</p>
<p class="p2">
Video games based on tragedies became a commonplace occurrence online this year.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p3">
In February, an anonymous indie developer released the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/chris-dorner-last-stand-video-game-4chan/"><span class="s2">free <i>Doom</i>&ndash;inspired game</span></a> <i>Chris Dorner Last Stand</i>. The game allowed user to play as Dorner, a former police officer turned murderer and fugitive, with the objective of protecting Dorner&rsquo;s cabin from police trying to kill him. (The following video of the game contains violent images and obscene language.)</p>
<p class="p2" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="365" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ijOcKQoi_EM?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p class="p3">
Dorner captured international headlines in February after he shot and killed four people, including three Los Angeles Police Department officers. Dorner then led police on a manhunt through California. On Feb. 12, Dorner was tracked to a cabin near Big Bear Lake, Calif., where police eventually exchanged gunfire with him. One officer was killed and one was wounded. The cabin caught fire, and Dorner <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_22580199/christopher-dorner-manhunt-body-found-inside-burned-out"><span class="s2">never emerged</span></a>.</p>
<p class="p3">
In April, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/video-game-boston-bombing/"><span class="s2">programmers</span></a> CMCW and Smilecythe created <i>Boston Marathon 2013: Terror on the Streets </i>for the shock site <a href="http://lolokaust.com/"><span class="s2">lolokaust</span></a>. The game was inspired by the <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/boston-marathon/"><span class="s2">bombings</span></a> that killed three people and injured 264 others.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p3">
Players take on the role of a marathon runner who must jump over moving pressure cooker bombs. In the background, there are other injured civilians, bloodied sidewalks, and Boston businesses named &quot;Boston Chowda Inc.&quot; and &quot;MC jackoffs.&quot;</p>
<p class="p7" style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/4/24/bostonmarathongame.gif" style="width: 330px; height: 243px;" /></p>
<p class="p4">
You can play <span class="s3"><i>The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary School</i></span> for yourself on <a href="http://swfchan.org/2942/sandyhook.swf"><span class="s2">SWFchan</span></a>, but be prepared for some disturbing imagery.</p>
<p class="p7">
<span class="s1"><i>H/T </i><a href="http://hypervocal.com/news/2013/slaying-sandy-hook-game/"><span class="s5"><i>Hypervocal</i></span></a><i> | Photo by </i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34396501@N00/58694182/sizes/l/in/photostream/"><span class="s6"><i>RebeccaPollard</i></span></a><i>/Flickr</i></span></p>
fernando@dailydot.com (Fernando Alfonso III)Wed, 20 Nov 2013 20:53:52 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/gaming/sandy-hook-massacre-video-game/IRLGamingThis developer turned the Sandy Hook massacre into a video gamehttp://www.dailydot.com/gaming/sandy-hook-massacre-video-game/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/a5/c1/a5c132e7387f632c08d4e496a5db0dc9.jpg'></p><p class="p1">
For the third time this year, a developer has turned a national tragedy into a controversial video game.</p>
<p class="p3">
<span class="s1">The name of the latest game is </span><i>The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary School</i>, and it allows users to play as <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/adam-lanza/"><span class="s2">Adam Lanza</span></a>, the man who killed 20 school children and six adults in the second deadliest school shooting by a lone gunman since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p3">
The game, which was produced by Ryan Jake Lambourn, places gamers inside Newtown, Conn.&rsquo;s Sandy Hook Elementary School to mow down students and staffers with a lightweight AR-15 rifle.</p>
<p class="p3">
Lambourn, who also created a game inspired by the Virginia Tech shootings, has argued that the game &ldquo;was intended to promote stricter gun control measures, a policy pursued by many in the aftermath of the shootings,&rdquo; the <i>Hartford Courant </i><a href="http://articles.courant.com/2013-11-19/news/hc-sandy-hook-slaying-video-game-20131119_1_sandy-hook-elementary-school-shooting-rampage-lanza-shot"><span class="s2">reported</span></a><i>. &nbsp;</i>On Twitter, Lambourn&rsquo;s game has been called <a href="https://twitter.com/kobboss/status/403220943683584001"><span class="s2">sick and disgusting</span></a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p4">
<span class="s3">&ldquo;</span>[G]uns dont kill people, people kill people. (but people who kill people with guns have a higher kill ratio than the alternatives),&rdquo; Lambourn, 27, <a href="https://twitter.com/googumproduce/status/403094242219667456"><span class="s2">tweeted</span></a> earlier today.</p>
<p class="p2">
The use of video games as social commentary on school shootings has its roots in 2005&rsquo;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Columbine_Massacre_RPG!"><span class="s2"><i>Super Columbine Massacre RPG</i></span></a><i>, </i>which puts players in the shoes of Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.</p>
<p class="p5">
<span class="s4">Developer Danny Ledonne explained the game wasn&#39;t intended to make light of the tragedy. &ldquo;</span>&quot;All forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration (even painful topics like school shootings),&rdquo; <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2007/10/footage-of-playing-columbine-a-documentary-about-video-game-controvery-released/"><span class="s2">he said</span></a> at the time.</p>
<p class="p2">
Video games based on tragedies became a commonplace occurrence online this year.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p3">
In February, an anonymous indie developer released the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/chris-dorner-last-stand-video-game-4chan/"><span class="s2">free <i>Doom</i>&ndash;inspired game</span></a> <i>Chris Dorner Last Stand</i>. The game allowed user to play as Dorner, a former police officer turned murderer and fugitive, with the objective of protecting Dorner&rsquo;s cabin from police trying to kill him. (The following video of the game contains violent images and obscene language.)</p>
<p class="p2" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="365" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ijOcKQoi_EM?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="630"></iframe></p>
<p class="p3">
Dorner captured international headlines in February after he shot and killed four people, including three Los Angeles Police Department officers. Dorner then led police on a manhunt through California. On Feb. 12, Dorner was tracked to a cabin near Big Bear Lake, Calif., where police eventually exchanged gunfire with him. One officer was killed and one was wounded. The cabin caught fire, and Dorner <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_22580199/christopher-dorner-manhunt-body-found-inside-burned-out"><span class="s2">never emerged</span></a>.</p>
<p class="p3">
In April, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/video-game-boston-bombing/"><span class="s2">programmers</span></a> CMCW and Smilecythe created <i>Boston Marathon 2013: Terror on the Streets </i>for the shock site <a href="http://lolokaust.com/"><span class="s2">lolokaust</span></a>. The game was inspired by the <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/boston-marathon/"><span class="s2">bombings</span></a> that killed three people and injured 264 others.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p3">
Players take on the role of a marathon runner who must jump over moving pressure cooker bombs. In the background, there are other injured civilians, bloodied sidewalks, and Boston businesses named &quot;Boston Chowda Inc.&quot; and &quot;MC jackoffs.&quot;</p>
<p class="p7" style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/4/24/bostonmarathongame.gif" style="width: 330px; height: 243px;" /></p>
<p class="p4">
You can play <span class="s3"><i>The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary School</i></span> for yourself on <a href="http://swfchan.org/2942/sandyhook.swf"><span class="s2">SWFchan</span></a>, but be prepared for some disturbing imagery.</p>
<p class="p7">
<span class="s1"><i>H/T </i><a href="http://hypervocal.com/news/2013/slaying-sandy-hook-game/"><span class="s5"><i>Hypervocal</i></span></a><i> | Photo by </i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34396501@N00/58694182/sizes/l/in/photostream/"><span class="s6"><i>RebeccaPollard</i></span></a><i>/Flickr</i></span></p>
fernando@dailydot.com (Fernando Alfonso III)Wed, 20 Nov 2013 20:53:52 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/gaming/sandy-hook-massacre-video-game/IRLGamingNavy Yard shooter identified after false initial reportshttp://www.dailydot.com/news/aaron-alexis-navy-yard-linkedin-reddit/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/66/d1/66d109ffcb3ab50800377f72d2736ece.jpg'></p><p>
Authorities have identified the suspect killed in <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-navy-yard-shootings-washington/">Monday&#39;s mass shootings</a> at the Washington Navy Yard, in which at least 12 people died. However, several networks had wrongly identified the suspect earlier in the day.</p>
<p>
News networks pinned the shooter as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, formerly of Ft. Worth, Texas.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>
<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BREAKING&amp;src=hash">#BREAKING</a>: Suspect in the D.C. Navy Yard shooting identified as Aaron Alexis, 34, originally of Ft. Worth, Texas, <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteWilliamsNBC">@PeteWilliamsNBC</a> reports.</p>
&mdash; NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) <a href="https://twitter.com/nbcwashington/statuses/379677813013745664">September 16, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>
A U.S. official confirms to CBS that the deceased Washington Navy Yard shooter is 34-year-old Aaron Alexis of Texas <a href="http://t.co/aQajYtEWnY">http://t.co/aQajYtEWnY</a></p>
&mdash; WTOP (@WTOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/WTOP/statuses/379681901910708224">September 16, 2013</a></blockquote>
<p>
A LinkedIn account apparently belonging to Alexis was <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/aaron-alexis/6a/31a/b4b">deleted this afternoon</a>. <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/twitter">Twitter</a> users <a href="http://www.justmugshots.com/texas/fort-worth/814064">surfaced a mugshot</a> of an Aaron Alexis of Ft. Worth arrested in 2010 over a firearm discharge. That man was 31 at the time, fitting the age of the Alexis identified in Monday&#39;s shooting.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/9/16/alexismug.jpg" /><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
NBC reported Alexis was a <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/379677265116016640">civilian contractor</a>, and the FBI believes he <a href="https://twitter.com/ellievhall/status/379673453684871169">used the ID</a> of a man who formerly worked at the <a href="http://dailydot.com/tags/washington-dc/">Washington, D.C.</a> naval facility to gain access.</p>
<p>
LinkedIn appears to have taken down his page:&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/9/16/Screen_Shot_2013-09-16_at_3.00.16_PM.png" style="width: 640px; height: 172px;" /><br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/us/shooting-reported-at-washington-navy-yard.html?hp&amp;_r=0"><em>New York Times</em></a> earlier reported authorities identified the dead gunman through fingerprints, though did not release his name due to the initial confusion over his identity.</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, journalists with both CBS and NBC <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/09/cbs-nbc-retract-navy-yard-shooter-reports-172737.html">retracted</a> earlier tweets after wrongly reporting the suspect&#39;s name.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>
BREAKING. <a href="https://twitter.com/johnmillercbs">@johnmillercbs</a> advises the initial reports identifying the suspected shooter as Rollie Chance are wrong.</p>
&mdash; Charlie Kaye (@CharlieKayeCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlieKayeCBS/statuses/379650554806300673">September 16, 2013</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>
NBC News: we are now NOT reporting name of shooter; retracting that report. deleting those tweets</p>
&mdash; Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) <a href="https://twitter.com/chucktodd/statuses/379652181323808768">September 16, 2013</a></blockquote>
<p>
There are clear parallels to the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook Elementary</a> shooting, in which Ryan Lanza was <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/newtown-elementary-school-shooting-adam-lanza/">wrongly identified as the killer</a>, sparking a scramble to learn as much as possible about him from Facebook <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/ryan-lanza-newtown-shooting-twitter/">and Twitter</a>. Authorities soon revealed shooter was actually <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/adam-lanza/">his brother, Adam</a>.</p>
<p>
Elsewhere, a <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/reddit/">Reddit</a> forum set up to track down the shooters didn&#39;t last long. Reddit banned the satirical&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/findnavyyardshooters/">r/findnavyyardshooters subreddit</a> Monday afternoon.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/9/16/3017544-inline-screen-shot-2013-09-16-at-12619-pm.png" style="width: 640px; height: 438px;" /></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">
<small><em>Screengrab via <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3017544/fast-feed/reddits-findnavyyardshooters-mocks-online-vigilantism">Fast Company</a></em></small></p>
<p>
Earlier this year, amateur Reddit and <a href="http://dailydot.com/communities/4chan/">4chan</a> detectives worked to <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-boston-marathon-bombing/">find the perpetrators</a> of the Boston Marathon bombings, but accused the wrong people&mdash;making the process of finding the suspects <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/fbi-tsarnaev-photos-release-reddit-marathon-bombs/">a lot more complicated</a>.</p>
<p>
<strong>UPDATE:</strong> The FBI is <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/aaron-alexis/view">looking for any information</a> relating to Aaron Alexis.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Aaron Alexis, deceased, is believed to be responsible for the shootings at the Washington Navy Yard, in the Southeast area of Washington, DC, around 8:20 a.m. on September 16, 2013. The FBI is asking for the public&#39;s assistance with any information regarding Alexis.</p>
<p>
If you have any information concerning this individual, please contact the FBI&#39;s Washington, DC Field Office at 202/278-2000 or 1-800-CALL-FBI.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<strong>UPDATE 2:&nbsp;</strong>According to Seattle Police, Alexis was <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/navy-yard-suspect-arrested-04-seattle-shooting">arrested in Seattle in 2004</a> for shooting out the tires of a car. Alexis&#39;s father told police at the time that Alexis suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been involved in rescue efforts during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/">afagen</a>/Flickr</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:56:01 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/aaron-alexis-navy-yard-linkedin-reddit/NewsWhy isn't this Georgia school clerk the viral sensation of the year?http://www.dailydot.com/via/branstetter-social-media-ignoring-antoinette-tuff/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/ea/2a/ea2a987c76ad53f3930c52ed33a26a06.jpg'></p><p dir="ltr">
It is an easy maxim that good news never makes the news. A reformed gangbanger doesn&rsquo;t make headlines when he gets his degree in prison and leads a quiet life as an HVAC repairman. However, he&rsquo;ll reach the front of the Post if he unloads a clip at a rival as he passes a playground. We like storytelling with our morning coffee, and stories necessitate conflict. We like remembering that real life does not always have happy endings because we like knowing we aren&rsquo;t the only one.</p>
<p>
This past week, though, we saw a true profile in courage. Antoinette Tuff&mdash;Dickensian name and all&mdash;talked down Michael Brandon Hill from unloading over 500 rounds through an AK-47 aimed at the students, grades Pre-K through 5, of Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in suburban Atlanta.</p>
<p>
So yes, that good news did make the news.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/us/georgia-school-shooting-hero/?hpt=us_c1">You already know the story</a>, which happened on Tuesday. It took approximately 24 hours to reach the Anderson Cooper 360 level, a snail&rsquo;s pace in the current environment. But good news does not Internet love make.</p>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/8/27/Screen_shot_2013-08-27_at_11.40.34_AM.png" style="width: 228px; height: 179px; float: left;" />In stark contrast to the now-typical news cycle, mainstream media picked up on the story much faster than social media. Presumably hoping that the fear and sorrow felt by millions on the day of the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a> shooting in Newtown, CT would still ring fresh for most people,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/antoinette-tuffs-911-call-on-ga-shooting-suspect-is-a-portrait-of-poise-compassion/2013/08/22/c62a6fa2-0b3a-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html">mainstream media led the march</a>&nbsp;on this very positive news story. But the Internet was remarkably quiet. Sure, there was some feel-good coverage by&nbsp;<a href="http://jezebel.com/woman-stops-elementary-school-gunman-using-sheer-awesom-1179363425">Jezebel</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/antoinettetuff-received-a-call-from-president-obama-tonight">Buzzfeed</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/08/22/antoinette_tuff_911_call_listen_to_the_full_tape_of_ga_school_clerks_call.html">Slate</a>. But without the quotable catchphrases provided by a Charles Ramsey type, social media found something better to do.</p>
<p>
The Antoinette Tuff story shows an opening divide between &ldquo;major publications&rdquo; online and social media, which&mdash;through their lack of memes, animated GIFs and general virality&mdash;essentially gave a blunt and indirect shrug of the shoulders to Antoinette Tuff&rsquo;s heroism: Yeah, she was heroic. Now what? The first time &ldquo;Antoinette Tuff&rdquo; began trending nationwide on Twitter in the US was early Friday, where it lasted only a few minutes. Her largest Facebook fan page has a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/antoinettetuffforpresidentialcitizensmedal">mere 1,700 members</a>; <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/charles-ramsey/">Charles Ramsey</a>, the man who found and freed the victims of Ariel Castro and the most recent receiver of the Internet&rsquo;s special brand of mob love, has 38,000. Searching for her on Reddit, a community which prides itself on telling the stories of the unobserved good, finds nothing outside of r/MorbidReality.</p>
<p>
So what gives? Is it merely a good story being buried under the bad? Did a 35 year sentence for a war criminal/whistleblower and chemical attacks killing 100/1,000 understandably outweigh Ms. Tuff? Or is there something that differentiates these people-turned-hero-characters that makes one more Internet-friendly than the other?</p>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/8/27/Screen_shot_2013-08-27_at_11.40.42_AM.png" style="width: 286px; height: 368px; float: right;" />Both Ramsey and Tuff are undoubtedly heros, Ramsey when he freed the four victims of serial kidnapper and rapist Castro. He was lauded with attention, earning&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/antoinette-tuffs-911-call-on-ga-shooting-suspect-is-a-portrait-of-poise-compassion/2013/08/22/c62a6fa2-0b3a-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html">numerous TV interviews</a>&nbsp;and<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/23/news/companies/mcdonalds-charles-ramsey/index.html">&nbsp;free hamburgers for a year</a>&nbsp;from McDonald&rsquo;s. He trended on Twitter for a solid week in the US. Our fascination with Ramsey went so far as to reach the inevitable backlash stage, as we discovered Ramsey&rsquo;s unfortunate past records of domestic abuse this past May. And while. Ramsey&rsquo;s feat of doing the right, brave thing at the right moment is more than commendable, there is a real&mdash;and obvious&mdash;reason why he was granted Internet fame, and not Antoinette Tuff.</p>
<p>
Antoinette Tuff is soft-spoken, an articulate mother of three with a somber, down-to-earth attitude. Charles Ramsey was rough around the edges, used street vernacular, and spoke outright about race (&ldquo;when a pretty little white girl runs into a black man&rsquo;s arms&rdquo;). In a word, he was funny, and a little shocking. Funny sells, retweets, upvotes, and likes. Ordinary Ms. Tuff does not.</p>
<p>
The Internet has a long history of granting celebrity status to slang-heavy poor people, be it <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/antoine-dodson/">Antoine &ldquo;Bed Intruder&rdquo; Dodson</a> (who is now an orthodox Jew), <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/ted-williams/">Ted &ldquo;Homeless Man with A Golden Voice&rdquo; Williams</a>, or <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/kai/">Kai</a> &ldquo;Later Arrested For The Murder Of A New Jersey Lawyer&rdquo; The Hitchhiker. While a lot can be said (<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/hilarious-black-neighbor-modern-minstrel/">and a lot has been said</a>) about whether these are incidences of America indulging in stereotypes (The Ghetto Rat, The Magical Negro, The California Surfer), the contrast provided by the ignoring of the Tuff story has enlightened a great deal about social media.</p>
<p>
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/8/27/Screen_shot_2013-08-27_at_11.40.50_AM.png" style="width: 277px; height: 365px; float: left;" />Don&rsquo;t get me wrong: Antoinette Tuff is getting her due elsewhere, with even a presidential invitation to the White House. The tragedy she prevented by having a heart&mdash;and enormous bravery&mdash;is bigger than anything I could say about online culture. I don&rsquo;t think the hundreds of families in Atlanta holding their children tonight because of Tuff&rsquo;s actions give a damn whether she&rsquo;s trending.</p>
<p>
But her absence online is simply more evidence of what cable news reporters and the likes of Will McAvoy have known for a long time: people want to hear the bad more than the good. No, scratch that: they want to hear the funny and the shocking more than the good. When Twitter is more incensed about MIley Cyrus&rsquo; career decisions (no matter how terrible and cringe-worth they are) than it is enamored with someone who prevented another Sandy Hook, we begin to descend into self-parody.</p>
<p>
I realize good stories are boring and it&rsquo;s fun to make jokes and feel witty; I&rsquo;m not exactly subscribing to Reader&rsquo;s Digest and listening to The Splendid Table every day. Hell, I didn&rsquo;t even have to look up that Ramsey quote. But recognize when an issue deserves your time. Applaud true heroism when you see it, and not just when it&rsquo;s autotuned.</p>
<p dir="ltr">
<em>Ben Branstetter is a writer and blogger living in Central PA. He attended the Milton Hershey School and studied Secondary Education at Penn State University. His work has been published in Thought Catalog, The Useless Critic, God of Lamb, and he has appeared on HuffPo Live. He can be reached by email atbranstetterb@gmail.com and found on Twitter @BenBranstetter.</em></p>
<p>
<em>Screengrab via wsbtv.com</em></p>
branstetterb@gmail.com (Gillian Branstetter)Tue, 27 Aug 2013 18:51:19 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/via/branstetter-social-media-ignoring-antoinette-tuff/NewsViaThis is the likely online alias of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanzahttp://www.dailydot.com/crime/sandy-hook-adam-lanza-kaynbred/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/6f/67/6f67e731ec4df9fa63dbac217872a478.jpg'></p><p>
Before&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/adam-lanza/">Adam Lanza</a>&nbsp;murdered 26 people at the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a>&nbsp;Elementary School in December, including 20 children, he spent hours online talking about guns, revealing a &quot;fetish&quot; for .32 ACP bullets, and editing Wikipedia articles about mass murderers.</p>
<p>
<em>The Hartford Courant</em>, working off a tip from someone close to the investigation,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/newtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting/hc-adam-lanza-online-posts-20130630,0,1646302.story">has finally dug up Lanza&#39;s past</a>, which was a topic of intense speculation in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. For some reason, the paper chose not to reveal Lanza&rsquo;s online identity. But it&#39;s easy enough to find, since the&nbsp;<em>Courant</em>&nbsp;quotes him verbatim and reveals the names of websites he frequented.</p>
<p>
Meet&nbsp;<a href="http://glocktalk.com/forums/member.php?u=119522">Kaynbred</a>, Adam Lanza&#39;s alleged online persona.</p>
<p>
As Kaynbred, Lanza&#39;s favorite haunts were mostly gun forums like the High Road, where he displayed an intense curiosity about gun laws and a deep knowledge of weapons and ammunition.</p>
<p>
From the&nbsp;<em>Courant</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
In one thread on the website thehighroad.org in October 2009 at 1 a.m., the poster believed to be Lanza asks whether a ban on a certain semiautomatic pistol might extend to other weapons.</p>
<p>
Another poster suggests that he ask the Connecticut State Police.</p>
<p>
&quot;I always prefer asking through proxy when I can avoid speaking to someone directly. I was just wondering if anyone knew because I have a fetish for .32 ACP,&quot; the poster suspected to be Lanza responds, referring to ammunition.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
This is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-480066.html">the thread in question</a>.</p>
<p>
In another thread to the same post, Lanza asked for help upgrading an M2 carbine rifle so that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-471428.html">it could fire fully automatic</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
In Connecticut, fully automatic firearms are legal to own but selective fire is prohibited. I vaguely recall reading ~1 year ago about a company which alters them to fire exclusively automatically (or something in that vein), but I do not know how that process works. For example, with whom would I correspond to modify a Title II M2 Carbine that is currently in another state to fire fully automatically before it is sent to Connecticut?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
On&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>, that same fetish with firearms merged with a ghoulish and portentous obsession with editing and correcting articles on mass murderers. For instance, on Feb. 10, 2010, Lanza fact-checked the article on Richard Farley, a Texas man who shot and killed seven people at his former workplace in 1988. His edits included a huge section on the types of weapons Fairley brought with him to the murder scene.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/7/1/wikipediaedit.png"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/7/1/wikipediaedit.png" style="width:640px;height:261px;" /></a></p>
<p>
At other times, he edited articles on the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sello_mall_shooting&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=339117281">Sello Mall shooting</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luby%27s_massacre&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=330632685">Luby&#39;s massacre</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dawson_College_shooting&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=310895994">the Dawson College shooting</a>, and the Collier Township shooting.</p>
<p>
On the entry for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Kinkel">Kip Kinkel</a>, who murdered four and injured 25 others in a mass shooting at Springfield, Ore., in 1998, Lanza again showed an almost compulsive obsession with firearms.</p>
<p>
&quot;Specifying the weapons,&quot; Lanza&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kip_Kinkel&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=330634252">wrote</a>&nbsp;as a note to his edits.</p>
<p>
Lanza isn&#39;t the first mass murderer with a Wikipedia pastime. Earlier this year, Norwegian media revealed the Wikipedia identity of Anders Bering Breivik, who killed 77 on the island of Utoya in July 2011.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/aders-breivik-wikipedia-edits-conservatism/">His edits have yet to be removed</a>.</p>
kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:38:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/crime/sandy-hook-adam-lanza-kaynbred/WikipediaCrimeThis is the likely online alias of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanzahttp://www.dailydot.com/crime/sandy-hook-adam-lanza-kaynbred/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/6f/67/6f67e731ec4df9fa63dbac217872a478.jpg'></p><p>
Before&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/adam-lanza/">Adam Lanza</a>&nbsp;murdered 26 people at the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/tags/sandy-hook/">Sandy Hook</a>&nbsp;Elementary School in December, including 20 children, he spent hours online talking about guns, revealing a &quot;fetish&quot; for .32 ACP bullets, and editing Wikipedia articles about mass murderers.</p>
<p>
<em>The Hartford Courant</em>, working off a tip from someone close to the investigation,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/newtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting/hc-adam-lanza-online-posts-20130630,0,1646302.story">has finally dug up Lanza&#39;s past</a>, which was a topic of intense speculation in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. For some reason, the paper chose not to reveal Lanza&rsquo;s online identity. But it&#39;s easy enough to find, since the&nbsp;<em>Courant</em>&nbsp;quotes him verbatim and reveals the names of websites he frequented.</p>
<p>
Meet&nbsp;<a href="http://glocktalk.com/forums/member.php?u=119522">Kaynbred</a>, Adam Lanza&#39;s alleged online persona.</p>
<p>
As Kaynbred, Lanza&#39;s favorite haunts were mostly gun forums like the High Road, where he displayed an intense curiosity about gun laws and a deep knowledge of weapons and ammunition.</p>
<p>
From the&nbsp;<em>Courant</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
In one thread on the website thehighroad.org in October 2009 at 1 a.m., the poster believed to be Lanza asks whether a ban on a certain semiautomatic pistol might extend to other weapons.</p>
<p>
Another poster suggests that he ask the Connecticut State Police.</p>
<p>
&quot;I always prefer asking through proxy when I can avoid speaking to someone directly. I was just wondering if anyone knew because I have a fetish for .32 ACP,&quot; the poster suspected to be Lanza responds, referring to ammunition.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
This is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-480066.html">the thread in question</a>.</p>
<p>
In another thread to the same post, Lanza asked for help upgrading an M2 carbine rifle so that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-471428.html">it could fire fully automatic</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
In Connecticut, fully automatic firearms are legal to own but selective fire is prohibited. I vaguely recall reading ~1 year ago about a company which alters them to fire exclusively automatically (or something in that vein), but I do not know how that process works. For example, with whom would I correspond to modify a Title II M2 Carbine that is currently in another state to fire fully automatically before it is sent to Connecticut?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
On&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/communities/wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>, that same fetish with firearms merged with a ghoulish and portentous obsession with editing and correcting articles on mass murderers. For instance, on Feb. 10, 2010, Lanza fact-checked the article on Richard Farley, a Texas man who shot and killed seven people at his former workplace in 1988. His edits included a huge section on the types of weapons Fairley brought with him to the murder scene.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/7/1/wikipediaedit.png"><img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/7/1/wikipediaedit.png" style="width:640px;height:261px;" /></a></p>
<p>
At other times, he edited articles on the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sello_mall_shooting&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=339117281">Sello Mall shooting</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luby%27s_massacre&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=330632685">Luby&#39;s massacre</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dawson_College_shooting&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=310895994">the Dawson College shooting</a>, and the Collier Township shooting.</p>
<p>
On the entry for&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Kinkel">Kip Kinkel</a>, who murdered four and injured 25 others in a mass shooting at Springfield, Ore., in 1998, Lanza again showed an almost compulsive obsession with firearms.</p>
<p>
&quot;Specifying the weapons,&quot; Lanza&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kip_Kinkel&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=330634252">wrote</a>&nbsp;as a note to his edits.</p>
<p>
Lanza isn&#39;t the first mass murderer with a Wikipedia pastime. Earlier this year, Norwegian media revealed the Wikipedia identity of Anders Bering Breivik, who killed 77 on the island of Utoya in July 2011.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/aders-breivik-wikipedia-edits-conservatism/">His edits have yet to be removed</a>.</p>
kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:38:00 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/crime/sandy-hook-adam-lanza-kaynbred/WikipediaCrimeFacebook bomb threat nets felony charge for teen girlhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-bomb-threat-teen-felony/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/6b/15/6b15f3cd70737eb8e9b9202411317ca6.jpg'></p><p>
A 16-year-old girl is facing felony charges after allegedly threatening to blow up a Pella, Iowa, school.</p>
<p>
Police said the teen wrote on Facebook about planting a device and targeting a school staff member, according to the <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/viewart/20130329/NEWS/303290075/Facebook-school-threats-draw-felony-charge-against-Pella-teen">Associated Press</a>. She was charged with threat of arson.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
Though Pella Community High School principal Eric Nelson said the school had to take the comments seriously, the threat was &quot;not considered viable.&quot; The girl&#39;s being held at a juvenile detention facility.</p>
<p>
A swathe of violence at schools throughout the U.S., in particular the <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/newtown-connecticut-school-shooting/">Sandy Hook tragedy</a>, means educators and police are on high alert.</p>
<p>
Schools in Steubenville, Ohio, were on <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/steubenville-lockdown-rape-anonymous-threat/">temporary lockdown</a> in January after a student&#39;s shooting threat. A Wisconsin teen <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/crandon-wisconsin-school-shooting-fake-video/">was arrested</a> over a YouTube video that allegedly depicted students&#39; deaths. A college student was expelled and charged over an <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/college-student-expelled-twitter-threats-professor/">alleged threat</a> to slit a teacher&#39;s throat; he claimed he did it for &quot;entertainment.&quot; More recently, police in New Jersey showed up at a teen&#39;s house after he posted a photo to Facebook of his birthday present,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-photo-kid-gun-police-social-workers/">a Smith &amp; Wesson M&amp;P 15 .22 caliber rifle</a>.</p>
<p>
These may have been empty threats. They may have been jokes. But school officials and police often feel they cannot take that chance.</p>
<p>
Even if it was intended as an ill-advised gag, the Iowa teen might be in for a long fight. It took a British man <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-joke-trial/">over two years</a> to <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/twitter-joke-trial-paul-chambers-overturned/">clear his name</a> after he made a joke about blowing up an airport.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo by </em><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/5188852381/sizes/m/in/photostream/"><em>psd</em></a><em>/Flickr</em></p>
kris@dailydot.com (Kris Holt)Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:42:32 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-bomb-threat-teen-felony/NewsFacebookGabby Giffords' gun violence testimony spreads on Facebookhttp://www.dailydot.com/layer8/gabby-giffords-gun-violence-facebook-testimony/<p><img src='http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/23/61/236145d6123483726750636a3cc07152.jpg'></p><style type="text/css">
.teaser img { display: none; }</style>
<p>
As the debate over <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/white-house-gun-control-petition-shooting/">gun control</a> in America rages on, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/gabrielle-giffords-resigns-youtube-facebook/">former U.S. House Rep. Gabrielle Giffords</a> made an impassioned plea to the Senate Judiciary Committee to do more this week. Following her testimony in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, her political action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions posted an image to Facebook of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=129618793873914&amp;set=a.129374647231662.27962.121378471364613&amp;type=1">her handwritten notes</a>. Within hours it was spreading across the Internet.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" src="http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2013/1/30/775800_129618793873914_1268158055_o.jpg" style="height: 813px; width: 610px;" /></p>
<p>
Giffords served three terms in Congress until 2012. On Jan. 8, 2011, she was shot in the head during a public event in Tucson, Ariz.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Speaking is difficult but I need to say something,&rdquo; Giffords said from a statement written by her speech therapist. &ldquo;Gun violence is a big problem. Too many people are dying. Too many children. We must do something.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="527" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LN8agexBETE?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="640"></iframe></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
The note and testimony were well-received online. By Wednesday evening, the Facebook photo had gained more than 6,000 likes and almost 5,000 shares. It also has hundreds of comments.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Thank you for your courage to speak out,&rdquo; wrote Carole Goodwin. &ldquo;Keep up the good work.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
&ldquo;A true hero and great American,&rdquo; wrote Nancy McGee Bell.</p>
<p>
Giffords&#39; husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, also spoke during the Senate hearing. <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mark-kelly-another-arizona-shooting-happened-duri">During his comments</a>, another mass shooting took place in Phoenix.</p>
<p>
Americans for Responsible Solutions was created in early 2013 by Giffords and Kelly in response to the tragic Newtown, Conn., shootings in December. A major part of its efforts have been on Facebook, and since the page&#39;s creation early this month, it has gained more than 40,000 fans.</p>
<p>
<em>Photo via&nbsp;<a href="http://www.facebook.com/AmericansForResponsibleSolutions">Americans for Responsible Solutions</a>/Facebook</em></p>
jfranz@dailydot.com (Justin Franz)Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:03:05 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/gabby-giffords-gun-violence-facebook-testimony/NewsFacebookLayer 8